August 1, 2017

Queen Elizabeth has 4 drinks a day.

And it's almost all about lunch:
Her first drink... enjoyed shortly before lunch, is a gin and Dubonnet with a slice of lemon and a “lot of ice.”...

Then, during lunch, she’ll have a piece of chocolate and a glass of wine at meal’s end...

O.K., then, also at lunch, the Queen drinks a dry gin martini....

Her final drink of the day?... a glass of Champagne before bed.
She's 91, and it's working out fine for her. But what about the rest of us? I'm seeing: "Moderate and heavy drinkers had 2-fold higher odds of living to age 85 without cognitive impairment relative to non-drinkers."
In a statement, the university said that, “By its (federal) definition, moderate drinking involves consuming up to one alcoholic beverage a day for adult women of any age and men aged 65 and older; and up to two drinks a day for adult men under age 65.

“Heavy drinking is defined as up to three alcoholic beverages per day for women of any adult age and men 65 and older; and four drinks a day for adult men under 65. Drinking more than these amounts is categorized as excessive.”
So by the "federal" (i.e., U.S. government) definition, the Queen is an excessive drinker. 

96 comments:

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

So if you go out to lunch on Satueday and have a glass of wine and then have 2 glasses of wine with dinner, you're a heavy drinker?

By that criteria, the French and Italians are drunks.. Except I didn't see young people getting falling down drunk over there like I sae in the States, or in England.

The Queen can have her drinks. It's not like she has to go back to the office to work after lunch.

Birkel said...

The U.S. government is full of shit these last 50 years when it comes to health and nutrition.

buwaya said...

She is British, they have a slightly different biology.
The USG standards are scaled to a less rugged mix of humanity.

Like me for instance.
I did not do too well when working for Australians.
British Isles derived, note, plus some selective pressure.
I can imagine the grim demographic filter that scale of drinking pushed their ancestors through.

holdfast said...

Good for her. I am half her age and I can't handle serious day-drinking without needing a nap in the afternoon.

Ralph L said...

Her mother's love of drinking was known, but her sister's did her harm (smoking didn't help). They were all very short and thin (by non-NE standards) in their youth.

Meade said...

Heavy drinking correlates to higher income which correlates to better health care which correlates to less mental illness.

It also correlates to damage to the liver.

Rob said...

What Ralph said. Compared to her mother, Elizabeth is a teetotaler. It's awful to think of the rest of that bottle of champagne in the evening going flat. The attendants must help out to prevent that waste.

Tim said...

My mom is 90 and will be 91 in the next 30 days. She likes to have a glass of sherry or two with a splash of club soda in the afternoons, lives at home with no assistance of any kind and still runs a real estate rental business. She's probably smarter than 90 % of the 30 YO women I have ever met. Five foot two and about 110 pounds.
Don't challenge her to a cage match, gal.

Ralph L said...

You've got the wrong tense in your headline, unless she's stepped up her drinking lately.

Birkel said...

Meade,
When you figure the way to get off this rock without dying, I will subscribe to your newsletter. Until then, something is going to get you. It's about trade-offs.

Tim said...

Oh, and the government pusillanimous pusiis who write these regs all look like J. Noble Daggett from True Grit -The original of course, and still live with their mothers, who weigh 14 stone.

D. said...

"It also correlates to damage to the liver."

something about causation. also churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)

ndspinelli said...

Churchill had 20-30 drinks a day.

Michael K said...

My mother finally gave up martinis at age 95. She hated it but decided it was time.She switched to sherry. She died at 103.

Lived by herself until just before her 100th birthday when she moved to my sister's.

She flew out to California for my son's wedding at 99. I wanted her to stay with me but she went home to Chicago.

The Bergall said...

Good for her. And by the way it's nobody's damn business..............

My Grandmother lived to 95, had two "snorts" of Scottish whiskey before dinner and a glass of wine during............

Fabi said...

Pol Roger cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, no doubt.

Meade said...

But I'm not talking about dying, Birkel. I'm talking about living well. Self-medicate with ethanol if, in your view, it helps you live well. But there can be side effects to that medicine. That's all I'm saying. Same goes with daily doses of cannabis, amphetamine, opioids, nicotine, antidepressants...

Michael K said...

"The U.S. government is full of shit these last 50 years when it comes to health and nutrition."

Hear Hear.

The pasta binge we went on the past 50 years has caused obesity and Type II Diabetes rates to explode.

Atkins was right about fat and protein 50 years ago and was vilified, especially by the left, the nanny state,

Birkel said...

Trade-offs? Can we agree, Meade?

Meade said...

Informed tradeoffs. Sure.

gspencer said...

"the Queen is an excessive drinker"

If you had Charles as a son, you'd drink too.

Michael K said...

"Same goes with daily doses of cannabis, amphetamine, opioids, nicotine, antidepressants..."

Nicotine is bad for people with peripheral arterial disease but most of the harm from cigarettes is from the smoke, not the nicotine.

The public health idiots are determined to ban e-cigarettes which do little harm and may prevent kids from smoking real cigarettes.

Meanwhile society is encouraging smoking marijuana which will cause COPD with enough use, just like cigarettes. I think marijuana smoke is actually more harmful.

There is no useful role for amphetamines.

john said...

Is Charles a teetotaler? He would seem to be, and I actually hope he is.

I want his mom to raise a second, and maybe a third, glass to him at his wake.

Go Liz!

Sebastian said...

"higher income which correlates to" intelligence "which correlates to . . ."

Bad Lieutenant said...

There is no useful role for amphetamines.

8/1/17, 7:05 PM


I don't understand this.

tcrosse said...

The Queen Mum (God Bless Her) was a Scotswoman, so we shouldn't judge her drinking by our capacity.

rcocean said...

First, the Queen rarely operates heavy machinery.

Second, you'll notice the Queen - even at 91 - is slim and trim.

Third, being the Queen, she gets great medical care.

Fourth, when did she start having 4 drinks a day? I'd bet it was fairly late in life. The damage to your liver is cumulative, so if you start late enough you can die before your liver does.

Bottoms up, and God Save the Queen.

Michael K said...

Blogger Bad Lieutenant said...
There is no useful role for amphetamines.

8/1/17, 7:05 PM


I don't understand this.


They were diet drugs when I was a teenager and you could by nasal inhalers for stuffy noses. They were called Benzedrine inhalers. They quickly became abused and were banned.

Pilots used them but a study by the Air Force suggested the effect was a perception of more effectiveness but no change in objective measurement, They continued in use in Afghanistan especially because of long flight times and may have caused an error in a bombing mission.

The Japanese used them a lot in World War II and there was a big addiction problem in post war Japan. This led to the discovery of haloperidol which became one of the first major drugs to work on psychosis.

Haloperidol was discovered in 1958 by Paul Janssen.[7] It was made from meperidine.[8] It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system

It is still the best drug for Amphetamine overdose or toxicity.

rcocean said...

I'm always amazed at how many slim and trim people live along time. How many obese people live past 75?

As a layman, that's seems to be the key. Don't be obese. Get moderate exercise.

But I only play Doctor on the internet.

Fabi said...

Michael K -- you speculated that marijuana smoke is worse than tobacco smoke and I would tend to agree. Now that we have a generation of people who have smoked pot on a regular basis, are you seeing any studies linking pot use to COPD, or at a great degree than cigarettes?

rcocean said...

BTW, I've read the ER admissions for problems with Marijuana use have skyrocketed in Colorado and Washington.

It seems that not everyone can eat/smoke MJ without negative reactions.

Further, I think that in 20 years, we'll be looking at people with massive medical problems due to heavy pot usage.

People in the 1930s/1940s thought people against smoking were rubes and prudes.

Mary Beth said...

gspencer said...

"the Queen is an excessive drinker"

If you had Charles as a son, you'd drink too.

8/1/17, 7:05 PM


That's what I was thinking. If Charles were my son, and there was a possibility that he was going to take over the family business, I'd be looking for liquid relief. Not gin, though, I never have cared for it.

I'd have an extra drink today because it's Yorkshire Day.

Tim said...

reocean said;
"Further, I think that in 20 years, we'll be looking at people with massive medical problems due to heavy pot usage"

I don't know if I agree with that.

A fair number of people have been heavy pot smokers since the 60's. We have not heard of any epidemic of COPD or brain worms etc, due to this phenom.
I really believe it is a person's genetics and stamina that dictate a lot of what their medical outcomes are. My Grandfather lived to be 92 and drank a couple of "Highballs" pretty much every night. He lost half his stomach when he was 88 to a perforated ulcer, but the doctors made him stop drinking 4 cups of coffee every morning as the proximate cause of the disease.

And of course, there are those who need no advantage via genetics, clean living, or stamina, because the bastards are just too mean to die.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Wouldn't a perception of more effectiveness be a good thing ceterus parabus or do we want fighter pilots feeling all in all less effective?

Michael K said...

"We have not heard of any epidemic of COPD or brain worms etc, due to this phenom."

It may be a dose issue like so many other things. Having it legal may increase the volume of use.

Second there is concern about schizophrenia being precipitated by marijuana use in teenagers. I think there is some evidence, but again , these are small effects when the drug was illegal and hard to obtain. The use of :"roach clips" suggested the need to smoke the dregs.

It's interesting that I see far less marijuana use in Phoenix recruits than in LA recruits. There we assumed 50% usage even if they did not admit it. Here it is maybe 5%

Big Mike said...

She's the bloody Queen of ENGLAND!!! She can drink whatever she bloody well wants. If you don't like it, there are rooms available in the Tower of London. Also a large wooden block and a very sharp axe, if you get my meaning.

Birkel said...

Meade,
Informed by whose standard?

I don't want to direct those people who are not my minor lineal descendants.

YMMV

Ralph L said...

How many obese people live past 75?
My grandmother was chunky to fat most of her life, slept with a smoker for 36 years, and had high blood pressure (~180), but lived well until a series of small strokes at 90. Died of cancer at 94, older than any of her relative by 10 years. But she was nothing like the Michelin people one sees today.

Found a closet shelf of (mostly full) liquor bottles and 5 pistols in her bedroom after her death.

Tommy Duncan said...

Foster Brooks and Dean Martin "airline pilot" skit:

View skit

Earnest Prole said...

Why are we talking about the Queen when we can talk about her mother, who drank triple what her daughter drinks and lived to the age of 101?

Fernandinande said...

So by the "federal" (i.e., U.S. government) definition, the Queen is an excessive drinker.

Gosh!

Living to 100: New Genes for Longevity Found

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

Fabi said...
Now that we have a generation of people who have smoked pot on a regular basis, are you seeing any studies linking pot use to COPD, or at a great degree than cigarettes?


As Michael K's non-answer indicates, he does anecdotes, not data.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Perhaps she's so old that she's simply doing what everyone did when she was young. Times have changed.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"Found a closet shelf of (mostly full) liquor bottles and 5 pistols in her bedroom after her death."

Hopefully there's a lost Faulkner novel that ends with this line.

Michael K said...

" Michael K's non-answer indicates, he does anecdotes, not data."

Hostility is not data, either, I don't think anyone does, Do you ?

chickelit said...

It's the life-giving gin! Gordon's for G&T's; Tanqueray for the martinis!

(those are her preferred brands)

chickelit said...

A recent study out of Denmark with a large cohort shows an inverse correlation between alcohol consumption and diabetes: link

William said...

The world would be a far happier place if Queen Victoria had been a better mother. She was neglectful and distant, and her unhappy children passed that trait onto their own children. If so many of her grandchildren--who ruled Europe-- had not been jerks, WWI might have been avoided...,.You can't knock Prince Charles without also pointing some of the blame at his mother, who was, after all, the person who put the stick up his ass......MJ has been around quite awhile. If it were going to have catastrophic effects, we would have seen those effects by now, That's not to say that its effects are universally benign. There seems to be quite a lot of hype surrounding it......We don't know that much about cell phones, and they haven't been around long enough for us to reach a reasoned assessment. I wouldn't be surprised if prolonged use causes brain cancer and early Alzheimer's. Probably all those tattoos are an early warning sign that the young people are brain damaged.

The Godfather said...

Back when I was a smoker (I gave up for good when I was 40), I was struck by how many old people (65 +) you'd see smoking away like chimneys in restaurants and bars. Didn't seem that smoking was doing them any harm! Eventually it occurred to me that the folks I was seeing in the restaurants and bars didn't include the smokers who'd died from emphesema and cancer, or those that were dying of those diseases in hospitals. In other words, it wasn't a representative sample.

Personally, I find that drinking and smoking are different. For me, smoking was addictive. Alcohol isn't. I suppose that QE2 finds her tipples enjoyable, but she is able to take them in moderation. That doesn't warrant criticism of her behavior by outsiders. It also shouldn't encourage people for whom alcohol IS addictive to have another round.

Etienne said...

and a lot of ice...

The ice cubes are made with Corgi piss and rain water.

F said...

So nice to see she supports British alcoholic beverages, like Dubonnet, gin, and champagne.

JOB said...

Drinking in Bed with You and Lucinda Williams

Our bed's been drinking, spinning morning dry
As Lucinda pours her loud blood in song
From whiskey bottles, singing about why
Both love and coffee scald, both black and strong
As night - but sunlight lays its warning blade
Across your tapered thighs. There, spider veins
Put paid to what our nudity has made -
Now flush with alcohol – the blush that stains
Our middle-aged desires. Your rounded hips
Are building flesh to slender curves; these rise
As, rolling on your side, you bring your lips
To mine and cut the lines that held my eyes.
The spirits, going sober, speak to bone:
We limp through love; you reconnect the phone.

bagoh20 said...

Does she make any of those drinks herself? Hell no. It's good to be the queen.

Has she ever made a drink for someone else? Probably not. It sucks to know the queen.

bagoh20 said...

I wish I could get back all the hours of drunkenness I've lived, but not nearly as much as I want back the sober ones - such a waste.

Etienne said...

Created by Parisian chemist / wine merchant Joseph Dubonnet as a means to make quinine more palatable for the French Foreign Legion battling malaria in North Africa.

Dubonnet's mix of fortified wine, a proprietary blend of herbs, spices and peels, and the medicinal quinine is a recipe that has earned it legendary status in the world of sophisticated drinks.

Now you know... :-)

Left Bank of the Charles said...

I'm skeptical that the Queen has a gin and dubonnet just before lunch followed by a dry gin martini at lunch. If you read the article closely, you'll see there is separate sourcing for the two claims. It seems more likely that she has one or the other, and someone is mistaken about their gin drinks. Also, it seems likely that the wine with chocolate is a small dessert glas. So I can only credit her with a very sober 2.5 drinks per day.

Meade said...

Meade,
Informed by whose standard?"

President Trump's.
Certainly not Hillary Clinton's.

themightypuck said...

I'm at least twice as big as EIIR so I guess I should go with 8.

chickelit said...

Etienne said...Dubonnet's mix of fortified wine, a proprietary blend of herbs, spices and peels, and the medicinal quinine is a recipe that has earned it legendary status in the world of sophisticated drinks.

Lillet will do in a pinch.

David said...

This does not include the screw tops she has stashed in the loo.

Big Mike said...

@Ferdie, I thought everyone, I thought everyone knew that data is the plural of anecdote.

richard mcenroe said...

Hell, if I had to put up with Charles, they'd have to chuck me in the Queenmobile like Hillary Clinton before lunch.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Comanche Voter said...

Yes but Queen Elizabeth is a "well preserved" excessive drinker. Maybe even a pickled one.

But what the heck, she functions quite well, thank you very much, and I admire the lady.

Gahrie said...

I don't think 91 year olds do anything excessively.

BN said...

The ancient Greeks were big on hubris and fate. We are big on science and technology (not that the Greeks weren't).

Some smokers and drinkers live to be a hundred and some tea-totalers die in their 40s.

Exhibit A: Keith Richards.

Exhibit B: John Lennon (not that he was a tea-totaler).

We think we are smarter than we are and we control more than we do.

45,000 people die in car wrecks every year. 90% of them wished they'd drank more.

Gretchen said...

Why would anyone argue with science?

Birkel said...

Meade,
At last, sir, have you no decency?
I wouldn't wish Hillary Clinton's liver on any human person.

chickelit said...

Donald Trump is a closet toe-teatler

BN said...

"Why would anyone argue with science?"

Statistics isn't science, it's odds.

Why do gamblers gamble?

chickelit said...

Statistics isn't science, it's odds.

Why do gamblers gamble?


Quantum mechanics is odds.

"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." ~Niels Bohr

chickelit said...

BN (boron nitride) is a fascinating substance. Those two elements, binary combined, have better properties than the one they bracket: explanation.

cubanbob said...

At 91 what else does the Queen really have to look forward to? A few drinks throughout the day doesn't seem to have hurt her and as we get older our patience for nonsense diminishes so a few drinks would be of help in that department.

Bruce Hayden said...

"Second there is concern about schizophrenia being precipitated by marijuana use in teenagers. I think there is some evidence, but again , these are small effects when the drug was illegal and hard to obtain. The use of :"roach clips" suggested the need to smoke the dregs."

Pot - yes, anecdotal, but there do seem to be problems with some people who start smoking pot young. Between my partner and me, we know 5-6 who started smoking pot sometime in their teens, and have had problems continuously since then, one going on 50 years now. Youngest almost 40 years. Not being a doctor or mental health person, not quite sure of the clinical definition of schizophrenia, but something definitely wrong with them. One commonality seems to be an extreme sensitivity to environmental issues, esp smells, but sounds too. This, among other reasons, makes holding down jobs difficult. One guy is lucky to make it a year before something in the environment makes him quit jobs. My theory there is that this may because pot is a depressant, lower sensitivity, and their minds compensate by ratcheting down their mental filters, noticing smells, sounds, etc that the rest of our minds mostly filter out.

Growing up in the 1960s, and going to college mostly during Nixon's Presidency, I have known a lot of people smoke pot. Most moved on after college or grad school. But there are some who did not. Maybe 5-10%. Maybe. It isn't really that they never quit (though they mostly didn't), but that their problems were evident before they entered their 20s, at least looking back from the age that the rest mostly moved on, and they did not. One thing they have in common is that they never really grew up, but are, instead, somewhat frozen in their late teens, even well into their 60s.

One interesting thing about these people is that they don't handle alcohol the least bit well, so mostly don't drink. I wondered if in previous generations, without the availability of pot, they would have been alcoholics. Hard to answer, because they seem to have a certain type of addictive personality, but also, with the pot, a certain intolerance for alcohol.

That all said, these people are outliers. I know far more who were able to safely use pot recreationally, and that includes some high powered attys who use pot to unwind a little during their down time.

Bruce Hayden said...

Funny thing is, is how much our country has seemingly turned away from drinking. The level of drinking among aur founding fathers was staggering. I think about the three martini kunch of the 1960s, and marvel that they could go back to work and do anything beyond taking a nap. But they did. Every day. My parents' generation (which includes QE II), seemingly drank much more than mine did, and their parents may have drunk even more. It was seemingly tolerated more, and many became acclimated to it. My father got his first real job as an atty in 1950 when one of the partners in a firm went on a week long bender, something that he did a couple times a year, but just isn't tolerated anymore in most circles. He was brought in to cover for the week, and stayed 47 years.

Michael McNeil said...

When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.

(Winston S. Churchill: reply to King George VI, on a cold morning at the airport. The King had asked if Churchill would take something to warm himself. As cited in Man of the Century (2002), Ramsden, Columbia University Press, p. 134.)

Michael McNeil said...

… A number of social problems arose. I had been told that neither smoking nor alcoholic beverages were allowed in the Royal Presence.

As I was the host at luncheon I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty [Ibn Saud] to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

The King graciously accepted the position. His own cup-bearer from Mecca offered me a cup from its sacred well, the most delicious I had ever tasted.

(Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. VI: Triumph and Tragedy, Chapter XXIII: Yalta: Finale, Mariner Books, 1953, pp. 348-349.)

(Emphasis added!)

Clyde said...

When your portrait is on your realm's money, you can do as you please. Within constitutional limits, of course.

Clyde said...

Bruce Hayden said...
Funny thing is, is how much our country has seemingly turned away from drinking. The level of drinking among our founding fathers was staggering.


I think a lot of it may have been because drinking water was an iffy proposition back then. Whisky, beer and wine were less likely to give you intestinal problems.

Wince said...

I wonder if all that drinking ever leads to the Queen being under Prince Phillip with her legs in the air?

Rob said...

Never mind the drinking. Who eats just one piece of chocolate? What willpower! What grit! Them royals really are superior to us common folk.

traditionalguy said...

A toast to Winston Churchill. He was gutsy enough to defy the Germans running the Royal Family's orders to sign their already negotiated Vichy like surrender to Hitler, hoping they would keep the British Empire. Instead Winston ordered England's fishing boats, Ferries and yachts to rescue the 300,000 troops from the beach in France. Hitler's Blitzkrieg forces that Hitler had stood down 3 days and rested awaiting the surrender, were then in such a methamphetmine downer after 14 days of attacking that they could not get it going again. All Hitler could do to Winston's unexpected Dunkirk evacuation fleet was send the Luftwaffe to bomb them.

That defiance kept open the window of time open that allowed FDR to get into the fight after the 1940 re-election.

The recent movie is stunning because of the miracle it represents. But it hides that the British Navy and Airforce were basically not there, because they had been ordered home to save them from destruction in defending what was planned to be surrendered.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Parasites forsooth! How could you consume enough alcoholic drink to supply your body's water needs?

MadisonMan said...

Why should anyone -- and especially the government -- care about the drinking habits of a nonagenarian?

Dad had a beer every night in his assisted living facility -- but the doctor had to okay it. I'm sure forms had to be filled out to, and the beer itself was kept in a locked room.

The State will control.

show me one socialist success in world history said...

Rob said...
Never mind the drinking. Who eats just one piece of chocolate? What willpower! What grit! Them royals really are superior to us common folk. 8/2/17, 6:20 AM

With your superior power of observation, Rob, there is decidedly nothing common about you!

Anonymous said...

I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but she's got to get a belly full of wine.

Rob said...

And then we have the glass of champagne at bedtime. Doesn't it leave the poor dear a little . . . gassy? But perhaps that's the point. Does the Queen of England end her day by inflicting a royal dutch oven on the hapless Prince Philip?

Meade said...

But I gotta getta belly fullawine

Best Beatle-y doggerel ever.

exhelodrvr1 said...

" Does the Queen of England end her day by inflicting a royal dutch oven on the hapless Prince Philip?"

She probably lights her farts.

tcrosse said...

" Does the Queen of England end her day by inflicting a royal dutch oven on the hapless Prince Philip?"

By definition, Her Majesty's farts don't stink, nor are they flammable.

Bilwick said...

Then she slaps Prince Philip around and gives Teresa May a lap dance.

Gahrie said...

Does the Queen of England end her day by inflicting a royal dutch oven on the hapless Prince Philip?

I wonder if they sleep in the same bed?

tcrosse said...

The Queen probably hopes she outlives Charles.

Unknown said...

I guess it helps her to ignore the fall of her country to Islam.

Unknown said...

Drinking day and night helps her to ignore her nation falling to Islam. Whites are aleady the minority in London. Goodbye England, You went from Richard the Lionheart to Richard Simmons.