Why does Southern Europe have much lower rates of alcoholism compared to Northern & Eastern Europe?

[TheForeigner]

Because they are wine drinkers and the biggest boozers drink hard liquor like whiskey or vodka. They drink hard liquor in all the countries where there is a high rate of alcoholism including my own. Romanians will drink anything to be sure.

[Universe]

Purely because of climate. You can't and feel no need to drink a lot of alcohol in warm climates.

Drinking cold beer straight from the fridge on a hot summer day is good stuff.

[Catnip]

Indeed, and it seems that typical Southern European drinks focus more on flavor and appreciation than its Northern European counterparts. Wine, liquor and aperitifs such as vermouth, fernet and similars were fancy and "gourmetized" before beer, whiskey and vodka. Not saying you can't get drunk on those but one would rather buy a vodka for binge drinking.

Yes, it's all about having gastro and drinking culture.
To be 'Bon vivant' (how we say in French), is to take all life has to offer and to be moderate.
It's also to be present in the moment as much as possible, not to 'faint'. It's the art of living good

[Marsa]

Is it?

https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/...-satisfaction/
Northern europeans are topping the chart.

Good point, but would you rather trust to self-reported claims or suicide rates?

https://worldpopulationreview.com/co...ate-by-country
Among the first countries in Europe are the following: Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovenia, Hungary..

Coincidence or not, some of these countries are among the leaders in terms of alcohol consumption.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/co...ism-by-country
For Europe: Hungary, Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Slovenia...

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/...nt/89109c81-en

"Suicide rates were lowest in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta..."

It could be connected with heavy drinking.

[rothaer]

Well, this is a good question.

On one hand I’d not like to drink much in a very warm climate.

On the other hand „risk“ factors are genetically determined and we can even get a little evaluation of from our common DNA data kits at

https://codegen.eu/

online and anonymously. The genetics are independent of climate, of course.

But I can imagine that climate did select in evolution. Maybe it was also just a co-selection.

I have the rough impression that a high hunter-gatherer (WHG + EHG) proportion makes prone to alcoholism or say, a high alcohol consumption. A possible explanation could be this:

HGs were out and hunting alone for days, scientists think. There was likely selected for autistic tendencies because this was suitable for that task. People with a higher HG proportion are more introvert (in average). Now, alcohol yields another mood, a more extravert one, and this can sometimes be much wanted.
But for Mediterraneans that are extravert anyhow, alcohol does not yield much.

First, my Eurogenes Hunter Gatherer vs. Farmer result is this, so I’m pretty much a "northerner", I guess.

Anatolian Farmer 6.15 Pct
Baltic Hunter Gatherer 62.38 Pct
Middle Eastern Herder 2.62 Pct
East Asian Farmer -
South American Hunter Gatherer -
South Asian Hunter Gatherer 2.03 Pct
North Eurasian Hunter Gatherer 0.96 Pct
East African Pastoralist -
Oceanian Hunter Gatherer -
Mediterranean Farmer 25.84 Pct
Pygmy Hunter Gatherer -
Bantu Farmer -

Second, if I upload my kit (triple merged, so I do get somewhat more results) to codegen.eu and then search in the results for „alcohol“, I get these genetic results that I consider pretty prone to alcohol.

Maybe we can compare.



There are even good things as risk of heart diseases are slightly lower if I do drink alcohol.

And another genetic predisposition is that I’m less damaged when drinking alcohol.



And yes, I like drinking alcohol, preferably vodka.

[Oliver109]

Basically the further away from northern Europe you get the less people seem to be into drinking in general, Africans generally show little interest in alcohol and tend to prefer sweeter rums and spirits if they drink. Spanish people are not very into drinking except for wines at meals, in many parts of Spain it is even uncommon to go into bars and have beer on draught, at least that is the case in the untouristic parts of the south east of the country.

[Damião de Góis]

I don't know if it's like that. It could be more the case of northern euros not being able to hold their liquor so it appears they drink more.

[Damião de Góis]

Basically the further away from northern Europe you get the less people seem to be into drinking in general, Africans generally show little interest in alcohol and tend to prefer sweeter rums and spirits if they drink. Spanish people are not very into drinking except for wines at meals, in many parts of Spain it is even uncommon to go into bars and have beer on draught, at least that is the case in the untouristic parts of the south east of the country.

Spanish people are not into drinking? You don't know what botellon is? I thought you were an expert in all things spanish. Oh wait...

[Oliver109]

Spanish people are not into drinking? You don't know what botellon is? I thought you were an expert in all things spanish. Oh wait...

I know about botellons and every culture apart from Muslim and maybe some east Asian ones likes to get plastered to an extent but i just don't get the feeling that the Spanish are that much into boozing the way the English or the Dutch and Germans as well as Poles etc do.

[Rizza]

Prefer coffee than beer - we say lets go out for a coffee rather than lets go out for a beer.

lol same with us Albanians - ''Shkojm e pime ka ni kafe''