On the face of it, the British pub is not a very healthy place. No one goes to the pub to take exercise, or to drink a vitamin-packed smoothie. You won’t see many pubs with bowls of fresh fruit on the tables, or with a running treadmill next to the fruit machine in the corner.
No Smoking for Pubs
But our pubs are certainly moving in a healthier direction. The biggest change of course came in 2007, when smoking in pubs and other public places was banned by law in England. Although there was some grumbling from die-hard smokers, this was a rare example of a new law that was overwhelmingly popular: overnight, pubs were transformed from fuggy tobacco-stained places into brighter, cleaner spaces – while medical tests carried out on the lung function of bar workers showed that their health had benefited from the new smoke-free environment.
Moderate Drinking May Be Good For You
Then there’s the question of alcohol. Now, it’s been claimed by some researchers that moderate drinking – especially of red wine, but also of beer – is actually good for you. But there’s no doubt that too much alcohol is not a good thing. As a nation, though, the British are drinking less. In 1979 UK pubs sold 29.2 million pints of beer a day. In 2013 this had fallen to 10.9 million pints per day.
The Number of UK Pubs is Falling
What does this mean? First, we are drinking more at home and elsewhere, which has meant a sad reduction in the number of pubs. But it also means that instead of beer, we are drinking much more wine, while drinks such as specialist ciders are becoming increasingly popular. Meanwhile, the smarter pubs have responded to our new drinking habits by offering a range of appetising non-alcoholic drinks, while it’s not uncommon to see one of those big shiny Italian-style coffee machines behind the bar of a pub (“A pint of bitter and a cappuccino, please” would have been an unlikely order only a few year ago.)
Pub Cuisine is Getting Healthier
Pub food, too, is a far cry from the grim old days of heavily salted snacks in three flavours. The rise of the gastropub has revolutionised our pub eating habits – peanuts are likely to come not in foil packets but in the form of satay sauce, while the noble pork scratching has been usurped by pulled pork. Pub food has become proper food.
Relaxing Pubs Can Reduce Stress Levels
And let’s look at one of the curses of modern life, the thing that’s blamed for many of our ills: stress. As a nation, we work longer hours than any other European country, and in today’s interconnected world, many of us are expected to be on the end of a smartphone or a computer for every waking hour. So the pub offers a welcome retreat from this whizzy world, a sanctuary of calm away from the traffic and the hubbub where we can sit back in a nice chair (like pub food, pub furniture has moved on: these days comfy sofas and armchairs are commonplace) and have a drink and chat.
Socializing in Pubs is Good for You Too
Which brings us to another sense in which the pub is ‘good for you’: it’s a place that brings us together. This may seem obvious, but it has unseen benefits. A 2014 study led by Dr Ignazio Cabras, an economist based at Northumbria University and University of York, found that rural areas with a local pub have more community spirit than those without one. Villages with pubs, found Dr Cabras, are much more likely to benefit from community activities, ranging from cricket or football games to art exhibitions and musical events. Fewer of us these days go to church, which leaves the pub as the hub of social life in many villages, towns and rural areas. Meanwhile the Institute for Public Policy Research, in a 2012 report, also highlighted the social value of pubs in British life: the IPPR held a national opinion poll which found that outside the home, the pub is the most popular place for people to ‘meet and get together with others in their neighbourhood’.
Pubs Boost Local Economies
Pubs bring economic benefits, too. The IPPR found that pubs boost the income of other village businesses by around £80,000 a year and also generate up to £120,000 worth of ‘social benefit’ to rural areas.
George Orwell's Perfect Pub
In 1946 the English writer George Orwell – author of ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farm’ – wrote an article for the London Evening Standard about his favourite pub, which he said was called The Moon Under Water. He listed the things that made it the perfect pub. Many of the items on his list now look rather dated; for instance, he said that ‘The beer is always served in a glass with a handle. Ideally, a pewter or china pot.’ Also he said that the pub served tobacco, stamps, and aspirins, and that it should serve cuts of roast meat and boiled jam roll. (Orwell also had a thing about pub furniture: The Moon Under Water had ‘no glass-topped tables or other modern miseries’.)
A lot of Orwell’s article seems rather quaint now, but in some ways it still rings true, especially when he says that ‘Most of the customers are regulars and go there for conversation as much as for the beer.’ (The Moon Under Water, of course, didn’t actually exist: the article was a wish-list.)
Pubs - the Home of Good Company & Good Conversation
And this, in the end, is why the pub is good for us: it’s where we connect with each other. Facebook and Twitter are all well and good, but nothing can replace real conversation with real people. As Samuel Johnson, the essayist and creator of the first ever English dictionary, said: ‘There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.’
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