To ask if this drink level is okay?

[makingitin2012]

So for the last couple of years (well, since having kids and turning into a total worrier about staying healthy for their sake!), I've realised that I was drinking far too much. My honest consumption was 3 bottles of wine a week (gulp).

The good news is I've really got a grip on this, and for more than a year now don't drink at all through the week. I do however drink on a weekend. (But obviously not 3 bottles of wine!)

Anyhow, now that I'm happy to drink just at the weekend, I've decided to address the issue of wine on Fridays and Saturdays. My problem is if I open a bottle of wine I find it difficult not to finish it! And I don't want to be drinking 2 bottles of wine a week as I think that's still too much?

So I'm thinking of having 1 can of cider on a Friday night, then opening a bottle of wine on Saturdays only. Does that sound okay, or still excessive? Can you tell I'm a worrier?!!!

Thank you!

[makingitin2012]

Thank you all! I completely get why it's feasible to think that I have / think I have a problem. Yes I did think I did - which is why I cut down and am actually quite proud that I drink half of what I used to! But, hand on heart, I think I do have a problem - but not with drink, with worry overall! I'm quite a hypochondriac since having kids, exacerbated by seeing a couple of friends die young through illness. I wish I could oh back to a time when I didn't consider mortality but I suppose that becomes with the territory of becoming a parent! Thank you for the replies, it's helped to put things into perspective.

[Naebother]

You're worried about your drinking so stop for a bit. A few weeks, a month. Then see how you feel.

If the idea of doing this is anxiety provoking. You have a drink problem

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Regarding the increase in liver disease in young people - a huge part of this increase is due to non alcoholic fatty liver disease. The cause of that, as the name suggests, is not alcohol. It's over consumption of carbohydrate (although of course most alcohol contains carbohydrates), and especially fructose (soft drinks, anything with HFCS, corn syrup, corn sugar etc). The modern processed diet now contains huge quantities of (sometimes quite well hidden), fructose and other sugars, and so called "healthy" low fat versions of foods are particular bad in that respect.

As for the wine - I think drinking 2 bottles of wine over couple of days at the weekend is a little too much if its every weekend, fine if its occasionally.

What about those little half bottles? Would those help avoid the issue of an unfinished open bottle?

[Chippednailvarnish]

A bottle of wine is approximately 700 calories, therefore 3 bottles is 2100 calories on top of what you eat.
Regardless of all the other health concerns, consuming one extra days worth of calories each week can't be healthy.

[heidihole]

Get a wine stopper and plug the bottle after half of it if you don't do it there is none on sat (or maybe only cider)

[HeadsDownThumbsUp]

carabos - they are plucked out of the air. From a government advisor:

"The disclosure that the 1987 recommendation was prompted by “a feeling that you had to say something” came from Richard Smith, a member of the Royal College of Physicians working party that produced it.

He told The Times that the committee’s epidemiologist had confessed that “it’s impossible to say what’s safe and what isn’t” because “we don’t really have any data whatsoever”.

There's just no basis for them. We don't have enough information to give people hard advice about how much they should drink daily, or weekly. So much depends on their drinking habits, their weight, metabolism, physiology.

So on that basis I won't be plucking an alternative amount out of the air myself. Just saying, as I already have, that if the OP thinks she should cut down, then that's reason enough to cut down. And that it's important to have many alcohol free days.

[Back2Two]

I agree with Minnie and Drdance

[Cat98]

I've recently cut down and drink a bottle of wine a week average - a glass on a Wednesday and then finish the bottle at the weekend.

[cardibach]

I agree Minnie.
Nobody actually knows how much is too much. Listening to your body is a good plan.

[Cat98]

I think a can of cider on a Friday and half a bottle of wine on a Saturday would be fine. You could also have a can of cider on a weeknight then too and still be under daily and weekly limits!

[pooka]

I probably sound a bit puritannical, but my gut reaction is if you are finding ways to cut down by substituting one drink for another, I.e. cider for wine, then it does sound like your servicing a need for alchonol rate than a fancy IYSWIM.

I got into a bit of a habit post dcs of having a glass of wine a night or a vodka and tonic, once dh got home. It became a ritual. I am instinctively wary of ritual/habit and so I cut down and now only drink if I go out, and even then, not very much at all. No tolerance for it any more.

How about the small bottles, rather than opening a whole one?

[KittensoftPuppydog]

Minnie, you're not alone.

[Bowlersarm]

Agree Minnie

[Minnieisthedevilmouse]

Akin not skin.....sigh.....

[Minnieisthedevilmouse]

Christ on a bike.

I can do half bottle a night. I do wonder how honest people are. I really don't feel anyone is educated about booze so much as harrangued on a regular basis according to whomever fancies a go that week.

Do you feel educated? And if so whose opinion do you trust? And why? I find it very conflicting and ultimately skin to reading the telephone directory. I can't be alone......can I...?

[namechangesforthehardstuff]

If you're asking people on t'interweb if it's too much it probably is. You think you've got an issue don't you?

[Bowlersarm]

Donki the OP says she will have a can of cider (3 units absolutely max) plus a bottle of wine - 9 units at 12% bottle.

That makes 12 units per week.

[DrDance]

There are people who drink far more and nothing ever bad happens.

There are people who drink less and have problems

If you feel you feel you are drinking too much than listen to yourself

Do you drink because you enjoy it or is it a habit?

[Donki]

A bottle of wine (13% ABV) is around 10 units, Bowler. So three bottles is 30 units which is somewhat more than is advisable, especially as the advice is not to drink everyday. Over three nights two bottles works out at over twice the recommended daily limit.

There is a reason that doctors are seeing a huge increase in liver disease in younger people.

[carabos]

Headsdown if the government recommendations are in fact "plucked out of the air" then what amount would you pluck out of the air as being excessive yourself?

[honeybunny14]

Id say mabey just drink 1 night at the weekend i have a drink every 2nd weekend sometime it will be less and i just have the 1 bottle of wine but if i have a rare night out i go for it but the rest of the time im a bit of a health freak

[HeadsDownThumbsUp]

Anyway, the upper recommended limit for women is actually 21 units.

[HeadsDownThumbsUp]

The government limits are plucked out of the sky. There's no rational for them at all.

If you feel like you ought to cut down on your drinking, then that's an indication that you should cut down.

[HeadsDownThumbsUp]

"you're prob better off eeking it out over the week than trying to cram it all in at a weekend"

Healthwise, that's not actually true. We're hit heavy and hard with the message that moderate daily drinking is fine, but binge-drinking = bad. And bingeing is bad if you're downing 15 pints a night...

But it's really important for our livers to have (many) booze free days in order to recover from damage. If anything, it's like sugar and dental care. A lot of sweets in one go will be bad for your teeth, but many little sweets throughout the day is worse.

Drinking a moderate amount over a week, balanced with alcohol free days is better for your liver than spreading that moderate amount over every day.

[kitsilano]

Well 3 bottles of wine a week is around 27 units which is TWICE the recommended weekly limit. So it IS excessive. (Speaking as one who was until fairly recently drinking at least that if not a bit more).

A bottle of wine over Friday and Sat nights though would surely be fine - around 9 units total.