Ditching The Drink For A Dry January ...
…goes back at least as far as 1941 and the Finnish government’s promotion of the virtues of alcoholic abstinence to their soldiers holding off invading Soviet troops!
But these days, for the millions who attempt a month of self-restraint, I suspect it’s less about battle-readiness and more about reducing our chances of everything from getting stuck in a leprechaun cut-out (yes, that happens!) to developing serious health issues like breast cancer or dementia.
Thankfully, there are tons of alcohol alternatives to help get us through January (and perhaps beyond) and here are just a few of our thoughts on the good, the bad and the downright dreadful!
Let’s start with water:
The good: water’s cheap and usually, easily available and as adults are close to 60% water, using January to hit the “drink around 8 glasses of water every day” rule, is a great idea isn’t it?
Except no one’s sure where this maxim came from and there’s precious little evidence to support this number.
What we do know though, is that the organization that propelled this data-less idea into the public’s consciousness was created and funded by the bottled-water industry.
Nothing suspicious there then.
To be clear, no one’s questioning the need for appropriate hydration, but food is surprisngly liquid-laden (even pasta with NO sauce is more than 3/5 water) and meets most of our watery needs.
The bad: Water intoxication (also known as water poisoning) is rare but nonetheless, well-intentioned overhydrating has killed more competing marathon runners than dehydration.
(For anyone interested in issues surrounding poor water quality, check out the stories of heroic efforts of Erin Brockovich and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha in exposing true watery horror stories.)
After water, the second-most purchased drink in the US is coffee:
The good: Regularly enjoying a coffee has an impressive list of well-evidenced benefits such as a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, colon cancer and Type 2 diabetes, impressive!
The “not sure”: Depending on our own physiology and time of day, caffeine’s well established nervous system and heart stimulant actions might be a great plus for our alertness or a brain-racing nightmare when we’re trying to sleep.
The bad: Easy, it’s the dehydrating power of caffeinated coffee, right?
Nope.
Research has consistently disproven the diuretic (pee-producing) effects of caffeine and the medical profession says we’re allowed to count our coffee and tea intake towards our eight glasses, if we’re still counting those glasses!
(For anyone thinking “Huh, I know coffee sends me to the bathroom”, you’re not wrong but caffeine’s not a diuretic, the geek notes will explain!)
There’s some evidence that unfiltered coffees like Espresso and French press coffee might increase blood cholesterol, especially, the LDLs or “bad cholesterol”. To be on the safe side, it’s probably best to drink mostly filtered coffee where the cholesterol-raising agents are removed – this is especially well done by paper filters, and then those can go straight out onto the compost pile, even better.
What about those fancy coffees, like a venti mocha Frappuccino?
The good: Um, maybe some protein and calcium from the milk?
The bad: A venti mocha Frappuccino comes in at a whopping 500 calories, that’s more calories than a Dunkin jelly donut followed by a French cruller.
So, for anyone forsaking alcohol to fast-track weight loss (smart as ounce for ounce, alcohol has almost twice as many calories as those carbs that everyone stresses over) this isn’t a good swap!
But perhaps we occasionally indulge in one of these and eat less, allowing for those liquid calories in our dietary plan for the day?
Nice try, but unfortunately, brains don’t seem to register liquid calories like food calories and make us continue to feel hungry after that coffee - the donuts would at least have filled us up!
As any Brit will tell you, a stressful situation is always improved by putting the kettle on, we swear by the healing powers of a strong cup of tea:
The good: Okay, it might not be the answer to all ills but teas of almost every color and herb variety contain high levels of blood pressure-reducing, anti-ageing, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic antioxidants, wow!
The bad: However much tea (or coffee) we drink, our brain never gets used to caffeine and as we age, we get slower at processing and removing caffeine from our body. Most of us know when to cut ourselves off from the coffee pot but black tea (the most caffeinated tea) contains around half the caffeine content of a similar-sized coffee, so as bed time approaches, consider a herbal tea like Valerian instead.
However, a word of caution regarding tea.
Whilst drinking green tea might well have health benefits, using concentrated over-the counter green tea supplements can be extremely harmful for our liver and the use of these supplements is strongly discouraged by the medical profession.
Whereas the Brits obsess over tea, Americans direct their passion towards soda, sports and energy drinks and sugar-added fruit juices.
The good: Not much beyond some vitamin C and energy, along with nutrient/electrolyte support during exercise.
The bad: The high sugar content of these drinks provides tons of often invisible calories and is a huge contributor to dental disease, even in healthy, regular teeth brushing individuals.
Even worse, regular consumption of this type of drink has been linked to a greater chance of developing diabetes mellitus type 2 and a diagnosis of this form of diabetes in our twenties, could take more than a decade off our life expectancy.
The down-right ugly: Regular, daily consumption of just two of these drinks appears to DOUBLE the risk of early onset colorectal cancer.
Makes sense then to switch to diet soda.
The good: Hmm, the zero calories, the taste?
The bad: In some people, “pretend sugars” stimulate the brain to produce hunger pangs and regular full-sugar soda drinkers are more likely to pile on the unhealthiest type of weight, that stuff that goes onto our midriff.
Dentists aren’t any fonder of diet drinks than they are of the full-sugar versions because the extra acidity found in diet sodas turns out to be as enamel-eroding and teeth-destroying as all that sugar in the sweetened sodas.
The down-right ugly: Regular consumption of these artificially sweetened drinks appears to increase the risk of strokes and different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
And for anyone wondering, those findings came from a study that followed almost 3000 people for ten years, not 10 lab rats for 10minutes!
Cards on table here.
Prior to delving into scientific publications to ensure this article was appropriately researched and not just “stuff I think I know”, I wasn’t a massive soda drinker. When the designated driver, I’d occasionally choose a diet coke but I would never have drunk the sugar-added version or the “diabetes in a can” version as I call it.
But doing my due diligence for this article has forever ruined diet coke for me too!
By the way, I didn’t review the health pros and cons of low/no alcohol beers and wines because there don’t appear to have been any investigations into these. Instead, check out these links to the best tasting low/no alcoholic drinks and let us know if any of them come close to a crisp Chardonnay or an inspirational IPA.
And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our post 😊
Stay curious,
