Why is it so much easier to down, say, a whole pint of beer or orange squash in one go, compared with a pint of water?
• Is it fair to suggest that the questioner’s preference for downing a pint of beer rather than a pint of water is dependent on individual taste?
I have never been able to down a whole pint of beer, much to my dismay – and not for want of trying! But I am able to drink a whole pint of water or more in one go, even if I do feel quite sick afterwards. I much prefer the taste of water to beer and I find it difficult to consume any fizzy liquids in large quantities. I assumed that this was the case for most people, but obviously not.
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Jayne Staines, Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK
• Is this just hearsay or is it the result of a well-designed experiment? I suspect the former.
Even so, a possible explanation could be that orange squash and beer have strong and pleasant flavours while water is bland, and that there is more motivation in a pub to persist with beer or orange squash than with water.
But surely it depends on context: if I were seriously dehydrated after some time in a desert, say, I would certainly prefer a pint of water to a pint of beer. In a pub, where one is not dehydrated, beer would be my preference.
So we need to establish whether the questioner’s proposition is really true (the clincher would be for non-drinkers to compare beer with another carbonated drink, such as cola) and whether it is true in a variety of contexts. If there is experimental evidence, then we can examine it and see if it was well designed and worth believing. Then we would need to find out why. This is the correct scientific response.
Mike O’Mahony, Professor and sensory scientist, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, US