[user104658]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

I started a thread about this haha... Is every French person an alcoholic if they have a glass with their evening meal, or is is a cute cultural custom?

Not EVERY French person obviously, some can have a drink with every evening meal as part of the meal (I've heard people bang on about how it interacts with flavours and such... dunno, I don't like wine!) and they're not using it to destress.

That said... Apparently, whilst binge-drinking is a much bigger issue in the UK than in France, France does actually have a higher incidence of classic "drunk every day" alcoholism. One of the highest in the world, I think, or at least it was at one point.