Thais prefer booze to milk

News > Health

Published: 28 Sep 2012 at 14.09
Online news: Health

Thais drink three litres of alcoholic beverages per head for every litre of milk they consume, according to figures released as part of a campaign to steer people away from alcohol towards healthier alternatives.

Songkran Phakchokdee, director of the Stop Drink Network of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, was supporting the campaign for people to refrain from consuming alcohol during Buddhist Lent.

He pointed out while Thais consume only about 14.19 litres of milk per head each year, well below the Southeast Asian average of 60 litres, Public Health Ministry data shows they drink about 2.69 billion litres of alcoholic beverages per year, or about 44 litres per head - an alarming figure and the cause of serious health concerns.

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yik
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Discussion 19 : 28 Sep 2012 at 21.2819
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somnamna D3: learn chemistry before ...! 'Calcium' is a base chemical element (symbol 'Ca', 20 prots'), that may, by 'ordinary means', not be 'altered' as you say. You may be missunderstanding a few things.
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bern1005
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Discussion 18 : 28 Sep 2012 at 19.5518
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There is a problem with abouse of alcohol in thailand (especially drink-driving) but an overly simplified statistic about volume of alcoholic drinks (without the information to know how much is beer and how much is strong spirits) tells us little of use. The amount translates to about 100ml of alcoholic drink per person per day (which if it were red wine would be in line with many doctors reccomendations).
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tomb
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Discussion 17 : 28 Sep 2012 at 19.4917
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Wow, serious investigative reporting. This could be the first in a series. Possible titles for follow-ups would be

Thais prefer rice to potatoes
Thais prefer buying pirated DVDs to real, overpriced ones
Thais prefer fried chicken to carrots
Thais prefer Mercedes Benz to Chinese cars
Thais prefer reading comics to novels

Earth-shattering investigations and conclusions all of them.
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bedouin
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Discussion 16 : 28 Sep 2012 at 19.2516
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Thai milk tastes bad compared to the Western variety. Alas, booze is cheaper, more widely available and provides temporary relief from the problems of life. Americans drink more beer than milk on average, and the beer there is just revolting!
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jacksprat
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Discussion 15 : 28 Sep 2012 at 18.1815
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"Invent 'milkahol' and the problem is solved." I had a colleague from Baltimore who drank Scotch and milk. He told me it was a common drink on the US east coast.
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jacksprat
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Discussion 14 : 28 Sep 2012 at 18.1514
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"Thais drink three litres of alcoholic beverages per head for every litre of milk they consume." Should this be a surprise? I don't know a single adult Thai who drinks milk.
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txapi
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Discussion 13 : 28 Sep 2012 at 18.1213
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Really?

The vitamins absorbed in the body from one glass of milk is negligible. More calcium is produced by the body during 10 minutes of exposure to the sun than you would gain drinking 200 glasses of milk. One banana has more calcium and nutrients than 10 glasses of milk, not to mention that there are many documented studies linking milk to many acute and chronic health diseases due to steroids and chemicals induced into the cattle that are passed on through the milk.
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genii
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Discussion 12 : 28 Sep 2012 at 17.4412
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Don't drink and drive, drink milk and stay alive.
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pquinlan
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Discussion 11 : 28 Sep 2012 at 17.3511
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To get a real picture of what is going on, one would need to see the same study over a period of years. I am certain that Thai's now drink far more milk than they did a couple of decades ago. AS for cheese, it was an almost unknown product to Thai's two decades ago. Most absolutely hated cheese, and many still do.
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pointoffew
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Discussion 10 : 28 Sep 2012 at 16.4510
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Fresh milk is terribly expensive in Thailand. The stuff in cartons is not fresh and I suspect most of it is made of milk powder, which is available at low prices due to a number of global factors.
Alcohol, on the other hand, is cheap, very cheap to produce - and it may alleviate the risks of arteriosclerosis, potentially caused by.... alcohol.
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