George Carlin has presented another hypothesis:

“One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.”

Jeanette Isabelle

Links explaining how alcohol causes the body to lose water:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm

http://mason.gmu.edu/~cpernica/analysis.html

I saw a part of that episode of Dual Survival , and as they were emptying the beer cans on the ground, I was wondering : How about mixing that beer ( diluted alcohol ) with some bad water and letting that little alcohol do some water sanitizing. The process would - in theory - consume the alcohol in the beer, as well as sanitize more water.

After mixing the water with the beer, they could boil whole thing. Boiling will get you (a) evaporating any remaining alcohol (b) making sure that nasty critetrs are dead.

Sounds like overkill, but better than throwing that precious liquid in the first moments of their situation.

From a guy who drinks urine???? So much for their 'expert' advice IMO.

Look,if beer was such a potent diuretic they would let people in Congestive Heart Failure drink all they wanted,they DONT.

Pure nonsense IMO. Im drinking that beer.

Yeah I saw that episode of DS and disagreed with their decision as well. You always hear that survival is a "calories game'", and how important it is to conserve calories. Then you see them just dump "food that doesn't run very fast" as Cody would say, into the dirt... Makes no sense to me.
If dehydration is the major concern, then just hold on to the beer until you find a water source. Duhhhhh. Then drink the beer (calories), and use the can to boil the water; and rehydrate.. It's gonna take time to get the water to boil, cool, and drink enough to hydrate. By the time your done with that any "Effects" of the alcohol will be long gone.
Maybe you'll want a nap, by your fire, but rest is a good thing.

Me personally, I'm drinking the beer at some point..

Frankly, I have a hard time taking any advice coming from the TV re survival very seriously. They were dumping beer primarily for the shock value. And I would certainly hang ont any available food in a tight situation. Haven't they heard of a traditional backpacking strategy - eat the lightest food last?

Define "survival situation".

If I'm stuck in a stranded vehicle and the best plan is to stay there for at least the next day or so then I wouldn't mind enjoying a little drink in the company of good friends. Since we're stuck anyway we might as well enjoy ourselves, right?

If I need to be at or above 100% mental and physical capacity I don't touch alcohol.

About the "liquid bread" analogy: It would be very interesting to see some qualified judgement about how many beers you should drink (along with plenty water) to optmimize performance. Following the guidance in my old friend the Swedish army survival manual http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads/pdf/h_overlevnad.pdf about 500 kcal per day (preferably carbohydrates) is a nice tradeoff for adequate performance in a low food situation. So a little more than two pints per day should do nicely, energy wise, sipped a little now and then throughout the day. I'm not so sure I like the idea on combining a pint with advanced navigation skills on an empty stomach, though...

Oh, about the Swedish survival manual: It is written in 1988. I'm sure our knowledge about how cognitive and bodily functions are impared in a low food/no food situation has improved since then, but I can't find it. I'm interested in what to do when faced with little food and you still need to do physical labour and/or generate body heat so you don't freeze to death. If anyone has material on that subject I'd love to hear about it.

Wasn't it common for monks to drink beer while fasting?

Yes, bock beer.

Alcohol will just cloud judgment, slow reflexes and cause you to lose heat, all bad for survival.