Hungarians drink like Russians

Do Hungarians really drink away their health? The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) paints a grave picture of the harmful habits of Hungarians in its latest report.

According to OECD’s most recent report, Hungarian people should pay more attention to their own health since every year they consume drinks equal to 11.1 litres of pure alcohol per capita, found out Blikk.

This number means Hungarians tied with Russians and managed to outdo Germany and acquire the 8^th place from 36, mostly European countries included in the research.

 

Although official statistics suggest that 400 thousand alcoholics live in Hungary, according to toxicologist Gábor Zacher the real number of alcoholics might nearly reach 800 thousand, and even the average alcohol consumption could be higher than the surveys suggest.

If someone drinks three beers after a long day at work, one will not get drunk or aggressive and could live long but one qualifies as an alcoholic since this routine is part of one’s life. If someone drinks half a litre of vodka a day, he or she has a much smaller chance for survival and might even die while trying to quit – said the expert. As he said, we could suspect a bad physical condition as well in the latter case, which makes them more susceptible to potential sicknesses.

As you can see in the official statistics, Hungarians can hardly say no to a shot of pálinka, a glass of tasty, Hungarian wine or a relaxing beer after work.

Gábor Zacher thinks that in about 15 years the decrease in the population of Hungary would stop if everyone would quit smoking and drinking;

“Illnesses caused by alcohol take 30 thousand people every year, while smoking takes 20 thousand. This adds up to 50 thousand, which equals the difference between the birth rate (90 thousand) and death rate (140 thousand).”

According to a survey last year, 41.2 per cent of Hungarian boys over 15 years old have been drunk at least twice which awarded us the first place on the list of 36 countries studied by the World Health Organization. Hungarian girls could “only” reach the third place on the list with 33.5 per cent, behind Welsh and Danish girls.

Source: blikk.hu