Drinking wine each evening

[Mamabear2424]

Is it ok to drink wine every eve?? I have a glass , sometimes 2 every evening and I love it, it makes me happy. Dh says mental health more important so if it makes me happy I should just do it. I am a healthy 40 something with a professional career. I just love wine.

Normalised, yes. But no, that's not healthy or normal.

"makes me happy so I should just do it"

What utter BS. Drinking every single night is not okay.

@Kendodd you might want to read this and the links in full

That equates to just more than a large glass every day. That's a lot of wine and personally I'd say you have a problem. Try cutting down to 5 nights a week and make it a small glass (so 1 bottle a week) and if you can't then you know you have an issue.

it's recommended to have at least two consecutive days off alcohol a week. And your total is exceeding the NHS limit. So no, it's not OK. There's loads of things that would make me happy but I don't do them!

The UK has a particular culture that seems to celebrate 'getting smashed' - something to laugh about/ expect on a night out- Now I must admit I like half a bottle on Friday and Saturday nights but that's about it- and I'm aware even that isn't great for you- but the amount many drink is idiotic - when I want to cut down drastically I tend to go to a long glass of a small gin and slimline tonic followed by a non alcoholic version . Wine is easier somehow to get through a lot very quickly- whereas I will sip a G&T

what kind of wine? I’ve been looking into the Mediterranean diet which says a glass of red wine with you evening meal is said to have antioxidants that are beneficial to your health. Something I can get on board with 😄

Thank you, I will have a read later.
I've always thought my drinking level was fine, healthy even in a social, wellbeing 360' sense. I reckon it averages out over the year as about one unit a week. As an example, over Christmas (a really heavy drinking period for me) I probably had two glasses of mulled wine on Christmas eve, three glasses of champagne on Christmas day and two glass on NYE. And I really enjoyed them all. Without my planned red wine (which I haven't managed to get off the ground yet) I would probably have a dry January (and February) without even noticing. I'm 50s, never been a big drinker, even in my teens. I'll read your links though and think about my drinking and if it really is for the best. I do actually really enjoy drinking when I do it though, even with known health consequences, not sure I want to give up completely.

Sorry to hear that 😕

But yup, my mum drank (just red wine so it's healthy! 🤔), probably not even every night, maybe five days a week, for a couple of decades. She had high blood pressure, early-onset angina (genetic, but the alcohol didn't help!), mini strokes, fatty liver, breast cancer (twice!) and, finally, vascular dementia which killed her at the age of 70.

So yeah, carry on with the 'just in moderation' healthy drinking.

@Kendodd the type of drinking you describe is absolutely fine if you're going to drink at all. If a heavy drinking period for you is what you have described in a week period then it seriously not a problem. Obviously no drinking at all js optimum but most people decide they would prefer to drink something than nothing.

@Anderson2018 but that will be as a swap for all your other usual drinking and to only have a small glass of red with a meal, and specifically the advice when starting to follow a Mediterranean diet is if you don’t drink already then not to start.

@Kendodd 👍🏼everyone has to make a personal informed decision about the risks they want to take in life. As long as you have the information and weigh it up. Enjoying the occasional glass because you enjoy it is different to making a concerted effort to drink daily.

I wouldn't drink wine very night personally, and I do love a glass of wine. I tend to buy a bottle at the weekend and have one glass a night until its gone (3-4 nights. Then I don't drink anything until the next weekend when I buy another bottle. I am super cautious though, because drink problems and alcoholism run in my family.

The amount and frequency of your drinking is unsafe, far exceeds the medical maximum advised limits and of course increases your risk of cancer.
Not something I would do especially as I have 2 young children but as can be seen by this thread plenty of people see it as acceptable.

*The NHS drinking advice is 14 units (for women and men now) but is not a “safe”level. There is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol only a “lower risk” level. They are just trying to minimise impact knowing most will not stop drinking alcohol.

Just because we normalise it in our society doesn’t make it okay. It’s personal choice of course as to what risk you take but we should stop normalising and even congratulating high alcohol consumption.*

This. Thanks @smileyface123

So many people still think, or kid themselves, that a glass of wine a day is actually good for them, when it's nothing but a toxin.

And so many people also think that it only affects the liver. Alcohol affects so many organs and is a massive risk factor for so many diseases: heart disease, strokes, dementia, cancers, to name a few.

(My own mother managed to tick all of those off!)

And so many people just think it is something that affects other people, the 'unhealthy' ones.

If this thread gets just one person to rethink their relationship with alcohol, than it's done some good.

Daft post. Eating kebabs/drinking energy drinks every day is also a bad idea.

Honestly, some of the posts here are ridiculous. Some are obliged to tell the OP that it’s all fine and normal, not because they have read any scientific/medical evidence but because they know that they themselves drink too much and they have to try and make themselves feel better about it.

Not good

2.5 bottles is 22.5 units a week. Not masses but over the 14 unit safer drinking recommendation.

former heavy/problem drinker now over 2 years sober

This.

Or, tomatoes or blueberries or strawberries or anything else that is high in antioxidants plus all the other health benefits 😉

To me it wouldn't be the amount necessarily although obviously within the guidelines would be advisable it is more the question of could you not have it which would be my concern. It is a slippery slope.

A myth.

If you want antioxidants, eat these:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods-high-in-antioxidants#TOC_TITLE_HDR_9

And so many people also think that it only affects the liver. Alcohol affects so many organs and is a massive risk factor for so many diseases: heart disease, strokes, dementia, cancers, to name a few.
This is very true but I honestly don't understand why anyone would think "oh well if it only affects the liver I won't worry about it"
That's actually insane. You CANNOT live without your liver. You might as well say "it only affects the brain" which by the way WILL be affected if your liver stops working anyway.
And death by liver disease is a fucking awful way to go. You get muscle wasting, dementia, ascites which is fluid build up in your abdomen, uncontrolled bleeding, horrendous itchy yellow skin, yellow eyes. It's absolutely brutal. And you wouldn't know your liver was damaged until it's too late.
There is no dialysis or anything like that for liver failure either. Your liver fails then your only outcomes are transplant - if you're lucky enough to find a donor, and considered "healthy" enough to survive the op, and can prove medically that you have been abstinent for 6 months, or death. That's it.

Stop worrying and enjoy it op. On here anything beyond a thimble of sherry at Christmas means you're a raging alcoholic.
They also like to throw data sheets and sources around to prove their expertise.

You can tell which posters likely have a problem with alcohol because they always bang on about the supposed MN ‘thimbleful of sherry at Christmas’. If nothing else, it is far beyond a cliche at this point.

I also find it quit worrying when people are so ready to dismiss ‘data sheets and sources’. Do you not believe in science or something?

@Jeffsmeffsmiff

Oh no, I completely appreciate that. I think it's just sometimes people think that liver disease only affects the 'down and out alcoholics'; they are more likely to know people affected by heart disease, dementia and cancer. And because there is less of a concrete link between alcohol and those diseases, are less likely to be aware of alcohol being a contributory factor.

I honestly don't understand why anyone would think "oh well if it only affects the liver I won't worry about it

I agree but I think part of this is that people think liver damage will always show up on blood tests so they think they can carry on with excessive drinking as long as they occasionally have their liver function checked. If that was the case, we’d have a lot fewer people dying from alcohol-related liver diseases because a proportion of them would have changed their habits when blood tests began to show problems.

I posted on here about drinking 1 bottle of wine every Saturday night and got absolutely slaughter and told it was over the recommendation and that basically I was a alcoholic (which I thought was nonsense tbh)

I have however for other health reasons stopped drinking and I now have a glass of nozecco every now and then and I feel so much better in myself for it