James Bond’s love of martinis would have left him both shaken and stirred as he consumed four times the weekly recommended alcohol limit, doctors have said.
Despite his dangerous exploits, the famous spy was more at risk of dying from liver disease or drink driving than a bullet, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
His high cocktail consumption may have even induced an alcohol-related tremor in his hands preventing him from stirring his drinks and explaining his preference for a shaken martini, the researchers said.
The team read all 14 of Ian Fleming’s novels over six months to test whether the secret agent would have been able to cope with his high octane profession while drinking heavily.
They noted down every time 007 drank alcohol and calculated the number of units he consumed.
Bond’s average alcohol consumption was up to 92 units each week – more than four times the recommended amount.
The most he drank in one day was 49.8 units.
The NHS advises that men should not regularly consume more than three or four units a day, while women should not exceed two to three.
Bond had just 12.5 alcohol-free days out of the 87.5 days he was able to drink and frequently drove when over the limit.
The experts said that while they appreciated the pressures to drink “when working with international terrorists and high stakes gamblers”, they would advise Bond seek help for how much he drinks.
Patrick Davies, from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and his team said: “hen we plotted Bond’s alcohol consumption over time, his intake dropped in the middle of his career but gradually increased towards the end,” they said.
“This consistent but variable lifetime drinking pattern has been reported in patients with alcoholic liver disease.”
Studies show that drinkers underestimated their alcohol consumption by about 30 per cent, which means Bond could be drinking as many as 130 units per week, the team concluded.
They said Bond was at “considerable risk of developing alcoholic liver disease, cirrhosis, impotence, and other alcohol-related health problems, together with being at serious risk of injury or death because of his drinking.
“We conclude that James Bond was unlikely to be able to stir his drinks, even if he would have wanted to, because of likely alcohol-induced tremor.”
