h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was out last night with a doctor friend of mine who mentioned an article he read in a science magazine. When asked if it was possible to live off Guinness, some expert said you would have to drink 54 pints a day, and two pints of milk (Guinness has no calcium apparently).

Did anyone else see this article, and if you did, would you mind correcting any errors above?

I think 54 pints a day is more likely to kill you than help you live.

54 pints? If it didn't kill you I think it would leave you in a pretty dubious state. I wouldn't have thought it possible to drink 54 pints of Guinness a day.

Perhaps the article meant that 54 pints is the amount of Guinness one would need to consume in order to obtain the recommended daily amounts of nutrients.

That, or maybe after 54 pints you wouldn't give a damn if you didn't get the daily amount of nutrients... And another thought - after 54 pints, just how much would you actually keep down ? Hopefully worshipping at the porcelain altar would come AFTER your body had absorbed said nutrients... If any one actually tries this, I would be interested in the results!!!!!

I'd be interested in hearing about the results - I don't think I'd like to see them!

As a fairly famous brewmaster once said, "There is food in beer, but there is no beer in food."

hey casinopants and welcome to h2g2, and no before you ask im not an automated message, im quite human . To let people get in touch with you and so you can be officialy welcomed to the site it may be thought a good idea if you put a little somethig in your personal space. Look on the screen for the button which says "my space" click it and then when on your space click the button saying "edit my personal space" then put in a little about yourself and click update! Simple as that. Your space can be updayed at any time so dont worry to much about what you put.

cya soon!


CK

A year in London living on Guinness plus one meal (lunch) per day in the work canteen. £1.25 per day (exorbitant, that's a half of Guinness) for the food, and I shudder to think how much for the Guinness. This was back in '92. Thanks to Melly Mel for subbing me lunch on the last day of my second month in work when I ran out of money. We're still occasional mates!

54 pints in a day would be totally lethal. However, I did read a similar article about two years ago, I beleive it was in Maxim, Stuff, or FHM (they all run together to me, and these are the American editions, in case you decide to look it up) in which a reader had posed the question if one was stranded on a desert island with nothing but beer, would it be possible to live and for how long?

The answer is obviously not long at all. However, it was postulated that darker beers, such as stouts like Guiness, would prolong your life for a just little. The reasoning behind this was that stouts and porters have more calories for energy, and more water by volume, slowing the agonizing process of dehydration.

All I know for sure is that if I was stranded on a desert island, and had nothing but beer to sustain me, my last days wouldn't seem all that bad. Unless it was a French beer.

I can only add that I once managed 18 Guinness in a day, albeit from 07:30 til midnight, starting in an "Early House" in Dublin intended for market workers, continuing on the train and concluding in Wexford, where I was feeling no pain. I don't think this would have been possible without food, so 54 in a day seems a little extreme.