News Flash! James Bond is Actually an Alcoholic.

“Martini, shaken not stirred.”

Martini. Shaken not Stirred. This iconic cocktail belonged to an equally iconic character called James Bond. But he also drank other easy cocktails, and others including celebratory champagne and even the occasional beer. In fact, in two dozen movies over the past six decades, Bond — James Bond — was seen sipping on alcohol precisely 109 times. You would think this International super spy has it all together but apart from dealing with world ending threats, he is also an expert in dealing with hangovers.

 

Now this wasn’t counted by a fan with nothing better to do, but it was according to a new study published in the Medical Journal of Australia entitled “Licence to swill: James Bond’s drinking over six decades,”. And public health experts at the University of Otago in New Zealand analyzed Bond films from 1962 to 2015 to better understand his patterns of alcohol use. They indeed found out that James Bond was indeed hammered while doing what he did best. Lead author Nick Wilson said in a statement. “Chronic risks include frequently drinking prior to fights, driving vehicles (including in chases), high-stakes gambling, operating complex machinery or devices, contact with dangerous animals, extreme athletic performance and sex with enemies, sometimes with guns or knives in the bed,” Wilson, the lead author of the study, said in an email to The Washington Post that the Bond movies are “very good for studying trends in behaviors such as smoking and drinking.” He added that “it was also a fun study to do — and the ridiculousness of some of Bond’s actions after drinking helped give the work some scope for a laugh.”

 

The study found that the British spy met more than half of the criteria for alcohol use disorder as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 classification system for mental disorders. In one film, “Quantum of Solace,” Bond consumed at least six Vespers, his concoction consisting of gin, vodka and a blend of wines called Kina Lillet. That amount of alcohol, according to the researchers, would have raised Bond’s blood alcohol level to an estimated 0.36 grams per deciliter — almost high enough to cause a coma, heart failure or even death. Damn.

 

But that drinking incident, the researchers noted, doesn’t even compare with one instance in a Bond book, in which 007 consumed 50 units of alcohol in a single day — “a level of consumption which would kill nearly everyone,” according to Wilson, a public health professor at the University of Otago at Wellington. James Bond, you mad lad, you.