Alcohol Consumption
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption. In particular, such laws specify the minimum age at which a person may legally buy or drink them. This minimum age varies between 16 and 25 years, depending upon the country and the type of drink. Most nations set it at 18 years of age.
The production and consumption of alcohol occurs in most cultures of the world, from hunter-gatherer peoples to nation-states. Alcoholic beverages are often an important part of social events in these cultures.
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that has a depressant effect. A high blood alcohol content is usually considered to be legal drunkenness because it reduces attention and slows reaction speed. Alcohol can be addictive; addiction to alcohol is known as alcoholism.
Read more about Alcohol Consumption: Types, Alcohol Content of Beverages, Standard Drinks, Serving Sizes, Flavoring, Flammability, Uses, Alcohol Consumption By Country, Outright Prohibition of Alcohol, Legal Drinking Age, Drunk Driving Laws, Taxation and Regulation of Production, Restrictions On Sale and Possession, Effects of Alcohol On Health, Alcohol Expectations, Alcohol and Religion, History, Chemistry, Toxicology, Raw Materials of Alcoholic Beverages
Famous quotes containing the words alcohol and/or consumption:
“The sacrifice to Legba was completed; the Master of the Crossroads had taken the loas’ mysterious routes back to his native Guinea.
Meanwhile, the feast continued. The peasants were forgetting their misery: dance and alcohol numbed them, carrying away their shipwrecked conscience in the unreal and shady regions where the savage madness of the African gods lay waiting.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“I should like to suggest that at least on the face of it a stroke by stroke story of a copulation is exactly as absurd as a chew by chew account of the consumption of a chicken’s wing.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)