#20 - A recent study suggests that consuming three glasses

[JulesC]

Hi,

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding why A is the correct answer. If binge drinkers drink once a week or less, and drink three or more drinks when they do, why does the problem inappropriately attribute drinking three glasses of wine a day to being a binge drinker? Also why is answer C wrong?

Thanks,

Julienne Chebat

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Julienne!

The author defines binge drinking as drinking 3 or more drinks at a time, but only once a week or less. So a binge drinker would be someone who doesn't drink Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday but then drinks 3+ drinks on Saturday. That's different than a person who drinks 3 glasses of wine every single day. Binge drinkers don't regularly drink, but when they do, they drink a lot. So they're different than people who regularly drink 3 glasses of wine a day. We can't make direct comparisons between these groups because maybe there's something about the health consequences of drinking a lot but less often vs. drinking 3 glasses of wine on a regular basis.

Also notice that binge drinkers could be drinking anything, not just wine. So maybe they are the people most likely to drink 3 glasses of wine in one day, but maybe they're even more likely to drink liquor or beer, which also may have different health consequences. That's probably what drew you to answer choice (C), but the author is not actually presuming that there is no difference between wine and other alcoholic beverages. The author seems to be almost making an even crazier assumption that binge drinkers are only drinking wine. The author never mentions other alcoholic beverages and only suggests that the binge drinkers are the people most likely to drink 3 glasses of wine in one day. So essentially the author is ignoring that other types of alcoholic beverages exist, not assuming that they are no different than wine in terms of health benefits and risks.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey