TIL the top 10% of drinkers in America consume an average of 74 drinks per week. About 30% of Americans never drink at all and another 30% only drink on special occasions, at most once every couple of weeks.

I have NASH and when I was going through my initial consultations about it I was asked to monitor my usual alcohol consumption for a month. I was worried because I thought I drank a lot, but I charted it honestly and took it in expecting the worst.

My consultant took one look and just glossed past it and moved on. I asked them how come and they said I was at less than a quarter of the threshold for alcohol-caused liver disease.

That blew my fucking mind, because I was keenly aware of the prevalence of alcohol-related diseases and I honestly didn't feel like I was a particularly responsible drinker then — but you have to be really really REALLY committed to alcohol abuse to hit the threshold, and yet huge numbers of people are.

/r/todayilearned Thread Link - slate.com