On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, Jens Wilkinson wrote:

In a nutshell, yes if you break the problem down in to
socio/economic/cultural/gender subcategories, It becomes a complex
problem. From the 30,000 foot view the corelation among population
groups is still there.

As Cordain pointed out many Asians have a nauseating reaction to alcohol,
and therefore can only consume very little or no alcohol. It is the
opposite end of the spectrum to how say many American Indians respond to
alcohol.

> Another perspective is, people often say that the rate
> of alcoholism is high among native Americans because
> of the loss of culture or power if you want.

That I don't buy for a moment. The American Indians I know seem to be very
proud people. If you follow that same logic the Japanese should have
all become chronic alchoholics after they were conquered in WWII.

Also you wouldn't argue that the American Indian's susceptibility to
diabetes is a cultural phenomenon.

> It's an interesting analogy but it's not really a
> great one because metabolic syndrome X conditions,
> i.e. hypertension, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart
> disease essentially form a sort of category, where
> they may all be manifestations of an identical
> process, which actually is related to the ordinary
> modern high-carbohydrate diet. Insulin resistance and
> mineral imbalance. So alcoholism doesn't really fit
> into that category.

Remember, most alcoholic beverages (besides the alchohol) are pure sugar
and/or carbohydrates. I see a connection.

> As I alluded to above, I think there may be
> biochemical reactions involved but there are also
> social factors that can't be overlooked. I used to
> have a hard time saying stop but am much better now,
> probably because of wisdom that comes with age.

Once again, yeah lots of cultural factors.

Back in the day, I once demonstrated to a Brazilian friend how to shotgun
a beer. He gave me puzzled look and said "why would someone want to drink
a beer like that?"

Craig