'Alarming' New Data on US Binge Drinking

At 7 Calories per gram. Or maybe they are into the questionable resveratrol.

Roughly 1 in 6 (38 million) adults in the United States binge drink approximately 4 times a month, according to a Vital Signs report published today in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a publication of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Binge drinking is defined as consuming 4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more drinks for men on an occasion.

The new data suggest that, on average, the largest number of drinks consumed by binge drinkers is 8 drinks per binge episode, "far exceeding drinking levels that define this behavior," Ursula Bauer, PhD, MPH, director of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said during a telebriefing.

"It is alarming that binge drinkers are consuming so much alcohol with such regularity," Robert Brewer, MD, MPH, Alcohol Program Lead at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, added in a statement.

Luckily, this activity comes with its own self-limiting, stop gap measures - purging and loss of consciousness.