Plenty of Americans like a good snort now and then. Wine, beer, whiskey, vodka, tequila, whatever; as long as it's done responsibly there's nothing wrong with a cold one or a shot every now and then. Personally I'm partial to a cold Alaskan Amber with my usual Saturday lunch at the lodge, and I'm also partial to a shot or two of good sipping whiskey with a good cigar out on the deck, or before I go to bed at night; I find it helps me sleep.
I'm also a Boomer. My wife likes a little sip now and then too, and she's a Gen-Xer. (Yes, I'm a terrible cradle-robber.) And, as it happens, even though alcohol use in the United States has been declining post-COVID, it seems we have plenty of company in people our age who are bucking this trend.
New research shows that U.S. alcohol use has declined for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, but drinking remains above pre-pandemic levels — with one particular group showing a sharp increase in heavy intake.
A study led by the University of Southern California/Keck Medicine found that among adults ages 50 to 64, alcohol use increased by nearly 4% from 2018 to 2024, while heavy drinking increased by more than 36%.
Across all age groups, alcohol use declined by nearly 2%, and heavy drinking declined by more than 8% from 2022 to 2024. However, overall alcohol use remained above pre-pandemic levels.
Guess who?
Ages 50 to 64, that's pretty much Gen X, but never let it be said that we aging Boomers aren't up for a challenge. It may not seem fair, of course, to pit us aging types up against a bunch of young upstarts, but this isn't a contest that depends on speed and agility so much as another kind of fortitude, the kind that results not in alcoholics or death from cirrhosis of the liver, but rather a non-teetotaler in decent enough health, or what Robert Heinlein would have described as a "happy old soak."
It seems that the younger generations are hopping on the wagon in greater numbers than their elders.
Among Gen Z adults, alcohol use declined by more than 5%. Millennials drank approximately 17% less from 2022 to 2024.
The findings, which were published on Sept. 21 in Annals of Internal Medicine, were based on self-reported data from the National Health Interview Survey, which included 114,352 U.S. adults from 2018 to 2024.
This may not be the worst trend in human history. It's very likely that the beginnings of alcohol intake didn't come from any desire to tie one on, so much as a way to make sure water from questionable sources didn't result in a fatal dysentery. Mixing said water with a little wine or other alcohol killed the bugs that would otherwise ail one, and the whole thing may have gone from there to develop a tipple for every taste. That's a trend that, while moderation is good, we'd hate to see die out completely. And never fear; I'm doing my part to make sure this old tradition is preserved.
And no, I can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that one of our daughters, when putting together her wedding ensemble, commented that she had something new and something borrowed, she still needed something old and blue, to which one of her sisters replied, "How about Dad's liver?"
This seems appropriate.
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