No, we're not born with alcohol deficit: Doc behind 'Another Round'

A Norwegian psychiatrist denied Monday inventing the so-called theory that forms the basis for the Oscar-winning film "Another Round", reiterating that man is not born with a lack of alcohol in his blood.

Crowned the best international feature film at Sunday's ceremony, the Danish movie is a dark comedy about four high school teachers who carry out a drinking experiment.

The four test a theory attributed to Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skarderud which supposedly claims that man is born with a deficit of 0.05 percent alcohol in the bloodstream.

But that is "fake news" that comes from a "selective reading" of the preface Skarderud wrote for the Norwegian translation of "The Psychological Effects of Wine" by Italian author Edmondo de Amicis, the psychiatrist himself said Monday.

"On the first page, I wrote that after one or two glasses, yes, life's pretty good, we think maybe we're born with a 0.05 percent deficit," he told Norwegian public radio NRK.

But "in the following paragraph, I reject that theory entirely," he stressed.

At first he was concerned about having been misquoted.

"Initially it was a little uncomfortable because I am after all a doctor, a psychiatrist, I treat people suffering from addiction, I meet their families," he told NRK.

But, the mini-notoriety also led the film's director, Thomas Vinterberg, to contact him and ask him to serve as "as a sort of consultant" during the shooting of "Another Round".

The storyline is "balanced", he said.

Alcohol "is not either or. The film is very measured."

"We can discuss the effects of alcohol. Alcohol is to a very large extent a social lubricant," he said.

"The difficulty is in finding the right balance, to not abuse it."