By Terry Ward | CNN
If you've been to a celebration recently and didn't see anyone drinking a BORG, you're probably not partying with college students.
And if you’ve gotten no idea what that phrase even means, you're probably not a member of Generation Z.
The acronym BORG stands for “Blackout Rage Gallon,” based on the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, DC. The term refers to a preparation often prepared in a gallon-sized plastic container that typically accommodates vodka or other distilled alcohol, water, a flavor enhancer, and an electrolyte powder or drink. BORGs are sometimes drunk at outdoor day parties, also generally known as darties.
The new edition of jungle juice
A BORG accommodates a lot alcohol that “drinking one such glass can lead to potentially life-threatening alcohol consumption and alcohol poisoning,” said Dr. Anna LembkeProfessor of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at Stanford University.
According to Sabrina Grimaldi, the net lifestyle magazine's founder and editor-in-chief, the massive drink is the new edition of jungle juice The Zillennial Zine. The publication is geared toward Microgeneration between Millennials and Gen Z.
“Instead of making a party-sized mixed drink in a giant 5-gallon drink dispenser, a giant storage container, or even the grossest trend that has been making jungle juice in a sink or bathtub, everyone has their own personal drink,” says Grimaldi CNN wrote in an email. As the name of the drink suggests, “It is intended to make you extremely drunk.”
What Lembke calls BORG’s “social contagion factor” makes it much more dangerous.
“Kids see other kids doing this and want to try it themselves,” she said. “That’s another real danger – taking dangerous deviant behavior and normalizing it by spreading it on social media.”
Binge drinking of Generation Z
Grimaldi, 24, first heard about BORGs earlier this 12 months when her editorial intern Kelly Xiong, 21, suggested a pitch to her Story on the subject of why they’re so popular with Generation Zers.
“I graduated in 2020, so it's safe to say I haven't been a part of the college party scene in almost five years (especially because of the pandemic),” Grimaldi said. “Even though Kelly and I are so similar in age, it's crazy how these micro-trends pop up.”
Xiong, a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, first learned about BORGs during her sophomore 12 months.
“It was during a block darty on St. Patrick's Day, and almost everyone had their own BORG,” she told CNN via email, adding that the drink was especially popular at large outdoor daytime parties or at “special darties.” “Occasions” is popular.
Although the origins of the term are difficult to find out, BORGs have made headlines, including in March 2023 when greater than two dozen University of Massachusetts Amherst students, lots of whom were suspected of wearing BORGS, were abducted by ambulance following an event off campus.
High school students drink BORGs
At the highschool senior pool party last 12 months and this 12 months, “everyone did their own BORG,” said Virginia, 18, a senior at a personal highschool in Tampa, Florida, who didn't want her real name used to guard hers Privacy.
Virginia said one in all the explanations BORGs appeal to her is the social aspect. “You need to name your BORG and get creative by writing the name on it with a marker,” she said.
BORG posts featuring gallon jugs with fun names like Captain Borgan, Our Borg and Savior, Borgan Donor and Borgan Wallen are multiplying on TikTok.
“Thinking along these lines is part of what makes BORGs potentially dangerous to the people who use them as a party drink,” Lembke said.
Virginia said she was aware of the hazards of drinking BORGs. “A lot of people just pour vodka in and don’t measure it. So it can actually be dangerous, as opposed to knowing you've had three cans of beer,” she said. “Nobody really rations how much they’re going to drink.”
This applies even when the person is 21 years old, the legal drinking age within the USA, or older.
A Standard drink within the U.S. accommodates 1 to 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer, based on the National Institutes of Health. For women, drinking greater than 4 standard drinks (and for men, greater than five) over a two-hour period is taken into account intoxicating. based on NIH.
“One BORG often contains one-fifth (25.6 fluid ounces or 3.2 cups) of vodka or other hard alcohol, which is equivalent to about 17 standard drinks, which is a massive amount of alcohol,” Lembke said.
No amount of alcohol is nice for you
In fact, it's best to not drink alcohol in any respect, as quite a few recent studies show No amount of alcohol is healthy. The World Heart Association published a policy temporary in 2022 stating that “there is no health-safe level of alcohol consumption.”
The liver processes about 1 ounce of alcohol per hour, or about one standard drink per hour, Lembke said. Depending on the quantity of alcohol in the combo, drinking a BORG “completely overwhelms the liver's capacity to metabolize it,” especially for somebody who can't yet tolerate alcohol, Lembke said.
The undeniable fact that BORGS are frequently sweetened with a diluent similar to electrolyte drinks or water flavor enhancers only makes them more dangerous, she said.
“It makes it more palatable and people can generally drink more than they could, like straight vodka,” she said. “But that doesn’t increase the liver’s ability to metabolize alcohol better.”
The CNN Wire
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