Does anyone else drink most evenings?

[SandraOhh]

I do. Wine usually, a couple of glasses. It's how I unwind. I do skip some nights. I know it's not great for you but everyone has their vices. It helps me cope and feel happier and more able to 'do' life.

@rainydayandpumpkinspice

If you need alcohol to relax then you have a problem.

Yeah, I agree with this. If you have that internal itch to have one then it's probably better not to.

Its normal in most households to enjoy wine with a meal, or an evening relax.

I seriously doubt that's true. I think the 'civilised glass of wine with dinner' is a bit of a middle class fantasy of how Brits drink alcohol.

[quote Claudethecat]This is an interesting read on drinking trends.
alcoholchange.org.uk/alcohol-facts/fact-sheets/drinking-trends-in-the-uk[/quote]
That is interesting, and notes how wine has become much more widely available than it was in the 70s when I was a kid. I remember back then it was rather an exotic thing to drink. Blue Nun, Mateus Rose, or maybe a bottle of Chianti with a little wicker base. This would be opened with great ceremony with the Sunday roast.

Also interesting in that article is this;
While youth drinking has been falling steadily, consumption among older people has not changed at the same rate. People aged 55-64 are more likely than anyone else to drink at higher risk levels, and are least likely not to drink at all. It may be that a generation who drank heavily in the 1990s and 2000s is bringing those habits into middle age, with potentially serious consequences for their long-term health.
...especially that last sentence, because the 1990s was when the alcohol industry got much more pushy because the use of MDMA ("ecstasy") began affecting their profits. People just weren't drinking so much, so the alcohol industry hit back with propaganda like the Leah Betts story and introduced alcopops to hook the kids in. It seems to have worked.

I do, so does DH. i have one small glass most nights and a couple at weekends but during times of stress that increases to two a night and three at weekends (half a bottle). i know this is not good for me, and I notice when I do dry Jan that I have more energy and clarity and better balance.

I'd like to stop but I'm very weak willed. while DH who has no desire to stop, is still opening a bottle every other day and offering me a glass, I cave in, night after night.

I go through phases of having one or two drinks (measured) most nights if very stressed. Haven’t had a drink at all for months now as my liver is failing- not alcohol related but don’t want to make things worse!

@lazylinguist

Its normal in most households to enjoy wine with a meal, or an evening relax.

I seriously doubt that's true. I think the 'civilised glass of wine with dinner' is a bit of a middle class fantasy of how Brits drink alcohol.

Most of my friends have wine with a meal most evenings, its not unusual !

Most of my friends have wine with a meal most evenings, its not unusual!

I didn't say it was unusual. I said it wasn't true to say most people do it. And a survey of your own circle of friends presumably isn't very representative of society as a whole. I mean... once you rule out the people who don't drink at all, the people who don't like wine, the people who only drink at the weekends, the people who have the odd glass occasionally etc it's pretty obvious that a glass if wine most evenings with dinner isn't going to be what the majority does.

@Rugsofhonour

Lots of people claiming to have one “small” glass. I bet it’s not that small. It’s almost certainly bigger than if you bought it in a bar or restaurant.

Also, alcohol content of wine has been steadily increasing. Warmer climates mean more alcohol content. The same bottle of wine that would have been 11% in 1980 could now easily be 14% yet people haven’t noticed and don’t take this into account when they’re pouring their “one small glass”.

Not necessarily. In lots of bars the smallest glass of wine on offer is 175. At home, a small glass is 125ml. That's what I usually have.

I think that you might be in the minority though leavesthataregreen. Many people who have only been of an age to drink, say this century, think a small glass is 175, as, as you say, that seems to have become the new "small" glass when you are out, with 250 being seen as quite normal.
In the 80s, I would suggest that wine was almost always served in 125ml glasses and was usually 9% alcohol. So (although I think RugsofHonour is claiming less of a difference than I recall) I agree with the point that many, many people saying "I have a glass or two every night" are consuming a lot more alcohol than is good for them, or even than is within recommended safe limits.

Its normal in most households to enjoy wine with a meal, or an evening relax.

I don't agree with this at all.
Again, I think it is people looking round their immediate circle, and either pretending, or just being ignorant of other people's lives, and presuming that everyone is like them.

Apart from anything else, I am regularly out in the evenings, at meetings or hobbies or volunteering or things like choir or just collecting dc from places, so all those people who are driving can be added to the overwhelming majority of people who do not drink every night.

Im not out in the evenings, for us its normal to have wine most nights, but that's us and we have no issue with it, we enjoy good wines

Most of my friends have wine with a meal most evenings, its not unusual
It genuinely isn’t the norm to have wine and food most evenings, so say 5 out of 7. Wine is not not the usual accompaniment to food most days by any measure.

Well it is here and with many of my friends, we all lead different lives!

Indeed we do

Enjoying good wines every day isn't any better for you than drinking shit wine every day though. It just sounds (and tastes) better .

Nobody's suggesting there aren't quite a lot of people who have a glass of wine with dinner most evenings, but to suggest it's somehow the norm across society is hilarious!

"Enjoying good wines every day isn't any better for you than drinking shit wine every day though. It just sounds (and tastes) better grin."

Bad wine gives worse hangovers so I think it's quite possible that they're worse for our health.

@Gwenhwyfar

"Enjoying good wines every day isn't any better for you than drinking shit wine every day though. It just sounds (and tastes) better grin."

Bad wine gives worse hangovers so I think it's quite possible that they're worse for our health.

But its no kinder to your liver

"But its no kinder to your liver"

Isn't it? Have you looked into it? Seems to me that if something makes you ill it's not good for you and something that doesn't make you too ill might not be quite so bad?

I think daily consumption of alcohol is a very bad habit to get into.

"You seem to be desperate to convince yourself that it’s ok to drink a lot of wine. The reality is, you know it isn’t."

Uh, no. Have I even said that I drink a lot of wine?

Around 3 large glasses of wine 3 times a week