If you are a person who consumes alcohol, how many alcoholic drinks did you drink last month?

Now, before you say anything, take a moment to realize that, if you’re like a lot of people, you’re probably about to fudge that number.

You’ll likely discount a few nights of wine with dinner or forget about those after-work beers.

You’re probably about to report 2 instead of 5, or 8 instead of 14.

Whatever you say, research says that it is considerably less than the truth.

Okay, to be charitable, you may do it unconsciously. Or not.

Either way, somewhere in your mind you want to downplay the number of drinks you’ve had. Maybe you’ll remember, maybe you won’t.

All that’s clear is that, to most of us, it feels important that we report fewer drinks than the reality.

For some reason, the question “How much do you drink” inspires fibbing and forgetfulness in most of us.

And that’s really too bad. Especially for scientists and researchers trying to collect accurate data about alcohol consumption.

What’s a good scientist to do? Compensating for alcohol consumption misrepresentation.

People do not accurately report alcohol consumption. Science bears that out.

Over the years, attempts to survey people on the topic have been fairly inaccurate.

Comparisons of how people say they drink and the amount of alcohol sold tell the real tale.

So scientists have gone to work trying to find ways to get us to tell the truth about our alcohol intake.

Some diligent work by Canadian researchers Tim Stockwell, Jinhui Zhao, and Scott Macdonald, published a couple of years ago in the journal “Addiction,” attempted to find a reliable method of determining alcohol consumption. Their article was titled “Who under-reported their alcohol consumption in telephone surveys and by how much? An application of the “yesterday method,” used surveys to ask about the types of drinks consumed “yesterday” compared to their perception of the quantity and frequency of their intake over time. Their study hoped to, as they described it, arrive at “a method of estimating how under-reporting of alcohol consumption might vary by age, gender and consumption level.”

After a survey in which more than 40,000 people were asked basic questions about how often and how much they drank, their efforts revealed that by asking, “How many drinks did you drink yesterday?” underreporting was minimized.

After all it doesn’t seem likely that drinkers who “rarely” drink, but coincidentally drank yesterday, are clear on what rarely drinking means. The inference can be made that such survey participants are seriously under-reporting consumption.

“Yesterday” helps scientists circumvent the tendency to lie about alcohol today

The truth is, we’re often lying to ourselves as much as we’re trying to dupe others.

However, from a scientific standpoint, to make any headway regarding research about alcohol consumption and the resulting consequences to health and social concerns, it’s necessary to have as accurate a data collection procedure as possible. The ”yesterday method” appears to be the best way to get to the truth. All in all, Compared to other methods, asking about what you drank yesterday minimizes under-reporting of general alcohol consumption and provides usable data that can be better utilized for public health reasons.

So, who under-reports most? Youth and light drinkers lean toward drink distortion.

Given what we know from this latest research, people do not accurately report their alcohol consumption. According to the “Addiction” journal study, the tendency to fudge the truth is not gender specific. All told, infrequent partakers (10-15 drinks per week) only admitted to a fourth of those drinks, a much worse record than those with high proclivities to drink. Younger drinkers surveyed also had the hardest time estimating their intake too, reporting far less accurately than older counterparts.

It is crucial that drinkers, scientists, and health professionals get alcohol reporting right. A wealth of health advice, preventative care, and decision-making depend on it. Hopefully the yesterday method will prove a great help to improving accuracy and quality of life.