back to article A nice long pub crawl is good for your health, if you stay on your feet

It's probably just as well as the walk to the fifth pub takes a lot longer than the first four, because according to a four-country collaboration of sports boffins, exercise helps offset ethanol. Succinctly: it seems 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, say on a Friday night when you're hunting down the post-pub nosh, …

  1. FuzzyWuzzys
    Facepalm

    Inducing paranoia pulls in the grant money!

    Fed up with this constant Health Nazi paranoia! Here's a new word, that we sensible people have known for years...moderation. Nothing wrong with chocolate, fried brekkie and beer, just not all day, every day!

    See the real issue is that with the increase in data availability, fast processing machines and easy to learn analytical languages like R, running studies over data has become easier or at least a lot less time consuming. So whereas it may have taken 3 solid years to run XYZ study not it can be compressed in a matter of months. So now every researcher on an adademic budget is desperate for that wonderful government grant to allow them to spend 3 years doing a study that will on actual fact only take 18 months, in order to get that bonus prize they need to produce some study that frightens the shit out of people or tells them 4 pints on a Friday won't kill them. So we bounce from highs and lows, every health nazi website produces a studies that constantly contradict, the government gets studies that keep the population scaeed and elated in equal measuree and the Daily Fail has a constant stream of moronic health studies to put alongside their "My Grandad was a Top Nazi" stories.

    As Rab C Nesbitt said, "Ach! Away an' shite! It's all pish!".

    1. Paul Shirley

      Re: Inducing paranoia pulls in the grant money!

      Moderation? You health nazi!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Inducing paranoia pulls in the grant money!

        Moderation is stopping at 8 cans on a school night, isn't it?

  2. lukewarmdog
    Pint

    Drink healthy and in moderation

    I always ask for a healthy pint when I'm out drinking. A healthy Staropramen, a healthy Estrella, maybe a healthy Mahou. Combine that with a health walk to the pub at dinner and I'm probably going to live forever I reckon.

    1. Little Mouse
      Thumb Up

      Re: Drink healthy and in moderation

      You can get bottled beer with pictures of runners and mountain walkers on them, bottles of wine with bicycles on them, etc.

      They're healthy? Right? Probably isotonic or something like that.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Drink healthy and in moderation

        I remember reading a study that showed something along the lines of thinking about exercise is as good as actually exercising, so you might be on to something.

        1. VinceH
          Coat

          Re: Drink healthy and in moderation

          If I were ever to own a pub, I would name it Moderation. Then my punters would be able to drink as much as they like in Moderation.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder, does the effect work in reverse?

    Can I play rugby, then celebrate having jogged around a bit by downing a gallon or so of beer?

    1. Rich 11

      There's only one way to find out: get your mates together and volunteer for a study.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        We study this every week. None of us are dead yet.

        Our death rate is lower than that of wider society :)

        1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

          RE: We study this every week

          Maybe - but have you been grant funded? If you have not had a Grant to fund your work then nobody will give a toss and you'll get zero publicity. However, once you can get a grant to fund the study you will be set for life and can sell your story to the Daily Fail.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: RE: We study this every week

            No grants, but we do do double blind studies - some of the fat lads think they've been running about but they haven't really.

            1. phuzz Silver badge
              Facepalm

              Re: RE: We study this every week

              "we do do double blind studies"

              Oh, I thought that was where you got so drunk you were seeing double and effectively blind.

              Science is complicated :(

  4. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Call me cynical but.....

    It does seem as if every single announcement from the health science brigade is either telling us that something is bad for us else if it is occasionally a pleasing announcement is then inevitably followed up by someone else who says that actually it is bad for us really.

    Which makes me wonder if the people who choose to make this their area of research are perhaps motivated to do so by a degree of Puritanism.

    Or to put it another way, that there is a degree of confirmation bias going on. (Or maybe it's just my bias?)

    Value free science is a great ideal, but most research seems to be constrained by who chooses to go into them and real-life practicalities, like research funding, gaining publication in respected ( and expensive) journals etc. (Which also depend on keeping the gate holders happy and their confirmation bias etc).

  5. Captain DaFt

    My intent

    Is to enjoy life as best I can while I'm still here.

    I'll eat what I want, drink what I want, and Fuck You, I'll smoke what I want!"*

    And although it may not happen, one of the few items on my bucket list is to be asked, "To what do you owe your longevity?"

    To which I'll either reply, "I've been dreading that question all my life!", or, "To the fact I haven't died yet!"

    *Oh yeah, and to quote Woody Allen: "Sex is not the answer, sex is the question. "Yes!" is the answer.

    1. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Re: My intent

      More relevant, Woody Allan said something along the lines of "I don't want to be immortal for my work. I want to be immortal for not dying"

    2. Count Ludwig
      Pint

      Moderation is for monks

      In the words of the Prophet Heinlein:

      “Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.”

      1. Small Furry Animal

        In the words of the Prophet Heinlein

        Grok in fullness

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