Comfort Foods and drinks

[Will]

Originally Posted by Bigstan

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you Will.

In my opinion, the odd 1 or 2 day alcohol binge will do little or no long term damage to a moderate drinker as will the odd 1 or 2 day food binge to someone who is careful about the food they eat.
Problems arise for both when the excessive behaviour becomes the norm.

Prolonged bouts of either will cause physiological and psychological damage and I don't think either is any worse than the other. To my way of thinking, an obese person who eats to fight the blues will cause themselves as much damage as the heavy drinker who drinks for the same reason.
People who exercise moderation in either will be unlikely to cause problems for themselves as long as they don't allow it to become a habit.

I think our difference of opinion probably stems from our respective attitudes to alcohol. I'm not a moderate drinker by any stretch of the imagination and accept the consequences of my alcohol consumption. I tend to notice that people like yourself, who rarely drink alcohol tend to be more critical of it's excessive use and tend to focus on the negative aspects of it's use.
I agree that drinking alcohol to beat the blues is not a good idea - but neither is sitting with a double chocolate gateau and a spoon

Well I guess we're at a stalemate!

I still stand that a binge session of drinking is worse on your body (and head in the morning) than maybe over doing it on cake or KFC ( ). I could dig up a breakdown of it if you're REALLY interested in it...? But without going into it, to cause legions and swelling and destruction of liver function (even though it regenerates) takes a lot less alcohol over the same period of time to cause yourself problems with a greasy dinner or triple chocolate fudge cake!

However from a psychological point of view, comfort eating and drinking are both as dangerous as each other - on that I think we are totally in agreement, not the actual consumption but the reason behind "why" becomes more pertinent.

It's not just about my attitude to alcohol though as I'd never see a drink as a relaxing comforting thing as I see it in a very different context... as in one of inebriation and social cohesion.