When I go to the supermarket, I’m one of those shoppers that actually reads the labels. I typically peruse the list of ingredients first, and then move on to check out the number of grams of fat and fiber.

I’ve never given much thought to the notion of labels on alcoholic beverages, but the gift of information would be nice. For the time being, however, the federal government continues to delay a proposal to provide consumers with basic nutrition and alcohol facts on containers of beer, wine and spirits.

“Alcoholic beverages can contribute a significant amount of calories to the diet,” said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at Consumer Federation of America (CFA). “Unfortunately for consumers wanting to watch their weight, they aren’t able to turn to the label to get the information they need, like they can with other food products.”

Alcoholic beverages are the only major category of consumable products not required to be labeled with information about even their basic characteristics. According to the CFA, labeling information can serve as a tool to help reduce alcohol abuse, drunk driving, obesity, and the many diseases attributable to excessive alcohol intake.

Because there hasn’t been any government action on labeling of alcoholic beverages, the CFA released a useful chart in 2008, comparing the calorie and alcohol content of several major brands of beer, wine and distilled spirits.

“Consumers need basic information about alcohol content to help them drink in moderation as recommended by the federal government and numerous health groups,” Waldrop said. “For example, consumers need to know that a 12 ounce bottle of beer has generally the same amount of alcohol as a 5 ounce glass of wine and 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.”

In 2007, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposed a rule to require a standardized “Alcohol Facts” panel on all beer, wine and distilled spirits products. Four years later, TTB has yet to finalize that proposal. CFA and other public interest groups have called on TTB to mandate alcohol information on a standardized label, including the serving size, number of servings per container, percentage alcohol by volume and the amount of alcohol (in fl oz) per serving, as well as calorie information. CFA has also urged TTB to require that alcoholic beverage labels contain a statement defining “moderate” drinking, derived from the U.S. Government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and the definition of a standard drink.

The CFA advises consumers to remember the following:

1. It’s not what you drink, it’s how much that counts. Don’t be fooled into thinking that beer or wine is safer or less potent than the “hard stuff.” Remember, 12 ounces of beer has the same amount of alcohol as 5 ounces of wine and 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.

2. Don’t drink on an empty stomach. Eat food while you drink and alternate water or other nonalcoholic drinks with your alcoholic beverage.

3. In many cases, alcohol and medications don’t mix. Always read the label to determine if the prescription medicine or over-the-counter drug carries a specific warning about consuming alcohol.

4. If you’re going to be drinking when you go out, plan ahead of time how you will get home. Designate a driver, have a taxi number, and money ready to pay the taxi. Whatever you do, don’t drink and drive.

5. If you are hosting a party, keep an eye out for those who may have had too much to drink and planning to drive home. If necessary, take their keys and call a taxi.

6. Whether you are a parent, family member or a friend, don’t serve to or buy alcohol for people under 21.

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Not sure about you, but I’ve been frisked going into concerts and football stadiums and it’s not fun. Why would anyone sneak booze in when you can buy it inside, right?

Well, it seems that enough people would to demand a new sort of product on the market–an alternative route for women–and it’s called the WineRack.

This is no joke–the website selling the WineRack ($30) boasts that that “the advantages are obvious.” It is actually a black sports bra (fits sizes 34C-D, 36A-D and 38A-C) that lets you carryup to 750ml (equal to the contents of one bottle of wine, or 25 oz.) of any beverage. The bra sports a polyurethane  bladder and a drinking tube long enough to route as you wish, along with an easy-to-use on/off valve to control the flow.

The big question: If the frisker feels the tube, what will she ask you to do–spill out its contents or remove your bra?

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Whiskey has been in the press a lot these days, and all stories seem to focus on its increasingly devoted buyer: women.

The liquor industry is seeing a surge in women buying alcoholic drinks traditionally marketed toward men, reported a recent piece on msnbc.com titled, ‘Mad Men’ effect? More women get a taste for whiskey. The whiskey industry acknowledges that “women make 65 to 70 percent of the alcohol-purchasing decisions for at-home consumption,” according to New England Consulting Group, so its now-finally–concentrating on the female buyer. As a result, a number of companies have added different styles and a wide range of flavors and aromas.

In fact, there’s even a non-alcoholic version of whiskey on the market–ideal for those who like the flavor of whiskey and who are either pregnant or prefer to abstain from alcohol. As promoted on its website, ArKay is “the world’s first alcohol-free ,whiskey-flavored drink…a perfect beverage that anyone can consume.”

There is some controversy about Arkay, however–so don’t throw out the O’Doul’s just yet. According to the Scotch Whiskey Association, ArKay is just a “soft drink with artificial flavorings.”

Historically known as a masculine drink, whiskey advertisements have almost exclusively been directed at men (exhibit right). This sparked an interesting debate, addressed in Brooke Carey’s Huffington Post piece, Women and Whiskey Advertising. After researching whiskey’s advertising past, Carey uncovered that the question “isn’t why don’t whiskey makers pay the ladies any attention but, rather, why do women respond to masculine ads while the reverse doesn’t appear to be true?”

It’s an interesting question. So what do you think about the advertising focus? And who buys the booze in your house?

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It seems that the Lehigh University Women’s Center  is taking an important stand, opening up a much-needed conversation about the pressures college-aged women sometimes feel surrounding alcohol, according to an article on the Lehigh Valley Live website.

A part of the university’s Women and Health Speakers & Events Series–and as a follow-up to the screening of the documentary Miss Representation, which addressed the pressures surrounding the ideal of successful women–the event focused on issues such as body image, the prominence of alcohol on campus, and why women are now choosing to consume hard liquor instead of beer.

Rita Jones, the Director of the Women’s Center, said the event was meant to offer a space for conversation, and that it did, as students and faculty in attendance spoke candidly about the pressures and effects of alcohol on women in Lehigh’s community.

Apparently, many women are opting to drink hard liquor because it has fewer calories, validating that body image and calorie counting are affecting women’s choices. Most students at the event agreed that the “loudest social voice on campus is often one advocating partying,” and that alcohol has become a “social crutch since ”there’s there is nothing to do at a party but drink.”

Some students suggested they’d like to see more non-alcohol activities on campus and explained that when libraries closes early, “it practically encourages students to go out and consume alcohol on the weekends.”

For student-athletes, those at the event said that their team’s longest meetings focused on discussions of dry policies, which determine the times athletes cannot consume alcohol before and after sporting events.

Kudos to Lehigh for bringing these issues about women and alcohol to light and offering students a chance to speak out. Let’s hope that other colleges and universities follow suit.

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On a recent Aeromexico flight from New York to Mexico City, I sat cozily in my window seat, devouring my newspaper, magazines and book, respectively. The Mexican man to my left sported a navy Red Sox cap, Aeropostale blue jeans and some very shiny black patent leather shoes. He talked to no one, read nothing, watched nothing, and listened to nothing. And then, suddenly, I heard him speak when the flight attendant approached with her cart full of beverages.

While I replied to her beverage inquiry with my best “agua con gaz,” she then asked my Mexican neighbor what he’d like. “Agua? Coca? Tequila?” she asked. “Tequila,” he answered. She then gave him a list of choices for how he can have it, which I understood to be straight up, on ice, or with Coke or Sprite.

I kept my eyes on her as she traveled to the next row and then the next, watching that tall, thin Cuervo bottle lifted and poured more than any other beverage. No money changed hands.

Wondering about the time I looked at my watch. Yep, just as I’d thought, it was 12:00 in the afternoon and these imbibers comfortably sipped their Tequila way above the clouds. If this were a U.S. airline, they’d have to pay at least five bucks, would receive a teeny little twist-off bottle, and would probably get some funky looks from nosy neighbors–like me.

On the way back home from Mexico, again on Aeromexico, I sat next to a middle aged Mexican couple. The woman, directly to my left, seemed a nervous flier, gripping her husband’s hand during take off and closing her eyes through the flight listening to the music of a latin singer named Diego Verdaguer (I only know this because his crooning figure kept on showing up on her Ipad). When the post-meal beverage cart arrived and she asked for her tequila on ice, it was old hat for me.

I turned back to my book and thought: Viva La Diferencia!

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“Candy is dandy. But liquor is quicker.” -Ogden Nash

With Halloween just days away, many of us are thinking about candy–oh, the joy of candy corn!–(though I’m also thinking about the glass of red wine that accompanies the steaming bowl of chili I eat while waiting for the trick-or-treaters to arrive).

The other day, I read a great article in the New York Times about candy, titled “Is Candy Evil or Just Misunderstood?” In the article, Julia Moskin recounts how when a woman offered her daughter’s 3-year-old friend some jellybeans, the girl’s mother froze.  The father said she might as well have offered the little girl crack.

The “offender,” Dr. Samira Kawash, was so stunned by the experience that she started a blog called Candy Professor, diving deep into the American relationship with candy. The idea behind the blog is that “candy carries so much moral and ethical baggage that people view it as fundamentally different — in a bad way — from other kinds of food.”

Sound familiar?

Candy and liquor have a lot in common–both can be sweet and sticky, tempting and delicious. Both can leave you feeling buzzed. Just the right amount, and you’re giggling and high-fiving. Too much, and  you feel dizzy and sick.

Like candy, drinking is often misunderstood and reviled. For some, drinking is one of life’s pleasures, right up there with sex and chocolate. For others, liquor is an evil to be avoided at all costs–the devil’s brew. Of course, recovered and recovering alcoholics have a reason to fear alcohol, just as overeaters might fear candy, but that’s another story entirely.

Turns out the link between candy and liquor is not so far-fetched. On the Candy Professor blog, Dr. Kawash writes: “Scientists had an interesting theory about the relation between candy eating and alcohol. Having discovered that the sugars in candy fermented in the stomach in a manner that seemed similar to the fermentation of alcohol, candy seemed awfully close to liquor. For candy alarmists, this meant candy eating was tantamount to alcoholic dissipation. But for candy lovers, this explained why candy eating and “tippling” didn’t mix, and why eating more candy would lead to drinking less liquor.”

According to Dr. Kawash, scientists felt your body needed the sugar in both alcohol and candy, and that “this was a good reason to let children eat candy: deprived, they risked a future of alcoholism and misery. ”

The history of candy is inextricably linked with that of alcohol. The candy industry experienced a boom during Prohibition. When saloons closed down and bootleg liquors couldn’t be found, people flocked to soda and ice cream shops for their fix.

It’s that combination of pleasure and danger that give candy and liquor the same elicit thrill, that sublime feel. Happy Halloween! Candy or liquor–which do you prefer?

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by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

Okay, so I’m basing my lofty scientific title treatise purely on myself, but I truly believe this. Some are angry drunks, and for some, liquor brings on a crushing state of grief. You may hate yourself drunk, but personally I think I’m great fun, especially since I let loose so rarely. In fact, I know I’m that troubling kind of great fun. Proof: my three major relationships (including my current marriage) were each launched by my being a non-drinker having too much red wine around a formerly platonic pal.

My husband, an Aussie who (yes I will stereotype him here), because of his nationality can hold his liquor, loves to remind me of the salacious night we crossed the friend line. I had two glasses of red, nestled my head on his best-pal shoulders, kept telling him how fantastic his omelet-making ability was and lip-locked him before he could think straight.

My college ex-boyfriend, who I’m miraculously friends with again due to the magic of Facebook, remembers a pleasant shock that the career-focused School Union President he worked on campus lectures with was secretly such a floozy. Nothing like an empty hotel room and a complimentary bottle of wine meant for a celebrity speaker snowed out of Syracuse University for a whale of a time.

Now, I repeat–I am the textbook opposite of a lush. And when it comes to my marriage, I’ve been a pretty good girl.  If I drank too much of anything over the years it’s been Diet Coke and coffee. Overall, I’m proud to say I’m a boring, doting mom of a seven-year-old. A bender for me is more likely to involve a hunk of cake, or too many slices of rye bread.

Naturally though, especially during the holiday party season when even doting moms imbibe, my husband likes to be around me when there’s wine involved. He’ll sexually benefit then, not some fella who didn’t see it coming. This has worked for us quite well: We’ve been married for 12 years, and together since we were in our early 20’s.

But sometimes, especially when my British friends come to town, I worry all will go bust. Most overseas people visiting me in New York are from the poverty-jetset documentary world–people I met at some film festival. My husband, a musician with an insurance company day job, is bored by poverty-jetset schmoozing, an essential part of the documentary filmmaker job. If English documentarians are coming, he always implores me to leave him out of the plans, despite the risks. And the risks: Brits drink. Hard.

Even though I know damn well I should steer away from the alcohol that sporadically has done me in, like Madonna, I am that pathetic American who desperately wants to impress our friends across the pond. Who wants to be labeled a wuss by a hard-drinking Brit who can tease with such an adorable accent? They’re so fabulous! They gave us Shakespeare! And McVities Hobnobs!

The last time I was out with the Brits, I tried to keep to the addictive nibbles, but the bartender sized up big money from foreigners bent on a good time. He shook each of us up his   “signature” drink with a big splash of Chartreuse liqueur, and then he was doing buybacks because they were asking for more please, and suddenly I felt like someone had cast me loose from a drowning ship on a life raft that only maybe was going to make it. This was followed by me falling into a giant East Village puddle, arriving home to my husband and daughter sludgy as the Loch Ness monster. And that was followed by a completely motionless morning in bed with my smeary eyes scrunched shut. And then a teasing email from a fellow producer about how flirtatious I was with someone I had no memory of.

Getting this now? When I pretend I drink I always get drunk because I don’t drink.

So when I told my husband there was yet another British invasion of documentary friends this weekend, he looked worried, too.

I scanned the bar where we were to meet, anxious to see what poor soul could possibly get a little extra attention from me if I wasn’t careful. There was an attractive man of my pre-marriage “type” stationed on the end. God help him, I whispered to myself.

I did in fact have divine intervention, or at least a stroke of good old-fashioned luck. Ken, an old writer-friend of mine was, by sheer coincidence, on bartending duty. I was there early and could confess to my fellow American that I was a wuss of all drinking wusses, and he said he’d look out for me. He was soon pouring a glass of Merlot for my sexy sassy friend from London, a whip smart partying film producer Austin Powers would have killed to shag. Ah, the deep aroma of red. Such memories! He poured me a small bit to taste and I took a pretentious mouthful, then a swish.

“Brilliant,” I said and Ken smiled, in on the drinking-sophisticate ruse.

My friends looked pleased. Ken slipped me some water to be on the safe side.

A few hours later, although I excused myself to the Ladies with a slightly naughty step to my walk, I swear I made it home with dignity.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro is a the author of four humorous novels including The Unexpected Salami and The Matzo Ball Heiress and is an award-winning filmmaker. She co-directed the IFC Films documentary Keep the River on Your Right: Modern Cannibal Tale,  for which she shared an Independent Spirit Award. She was co-producer and shares a “Film By” credit on the rip-roaring documentary Finishing Heaven which aired this year on HBO. She is currently at work on a new novel and film. For more info., please visit her website.

It’s the Night Before Thanksgiving, and chances are, your teens will want to go out and meet their friends or hang out with their older siblings. You’re so busy cooking, you’ll most likely be relieved to have the house to yourself. But before you let them go, check the liquor!

Turns out Thanksgiving-Eve Night–the night before Thanksgiving–is the biggest night for underage drinking, even more than graduation or prom night. The fridge and the liquor cabinets are stocked, parents are distracted by relatives and dinner preparations, and older siblings or college-age friends are around…