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.

I agree, I also heard the 14 units isnt even accurate, just like eating 5 a day or eating too much sugar , or salt

still, i will have 2 nights off as i think that is good for ME and everyone is different so these unit things cannot apply to all in such a blanket way

I agree with PP that every night is the issue, not the amount overall. I would aim for 2 days a week off. We don't drink M-Th unless on holiday and whilst I don't notice a huge positive difference when I'm doing this I really notice a negative difference when I drink every day ie the Christmas hols. Currently feeling sluggish and bloated and only drank to excess a couple of times. I also think regular alcohol slows my metabolism, I find it much more difficult to maintain my weight even if I factor alcohol calories in.

The most important thing about drinking IMO is to be mindful of it. Which is what you are doing. Keeping an eye on it, thinking about how it may affect your health based on information you have, both personal and public information that is provided. There are loads of strategies you can use, for example dry months (I am doing dry January), lowering the alcohol content of drinks you have plus a load more things if you are concerned about alcohol intake.

IMO the second most important thing is to enjoy it - that's the point after all !

And the third most important thing to me is to not get influenced by zealots of either persuasion (it's all bad, or it's all good) who often have their own hang ups about it for various reasons.

@GasPanic The NHS shouldn't define what is excessive to anyone. The government doesn't have a right to tell me or anyone else what is excessive and what isn't.

Of course the NHS should. The service is designed to improve, prevent, diagnose and treat both physical and mental health problems. How can they do that without parameters?

The NHS has a duty of care, which includes managing excessive amounts of alcohol consumption before it causes irreversible harm to patients. If a patient is causing detriment to themselves, it’s prudent for the NHS to advise of lifestyle changes for improvement and to prevent further problems. Not only should the NHS state what is excessive, but also what might be excessive to different people eg gender or age differences.

The NHS should not shrug their shoulders at risky decisions or merely act as a safety blanket when it all goes wrong. They have a duty of care to implement preventive measures, and ultimately have limited resources. If you’re doing something excessive as per medical research, of course they should tell you.

Me too, and DH.

I have been drinking around the same for years. It has never increased and I make sure I keep a close eye and don't drink any more than my allowance.

I also mix my wine with alc free to make it go further!

The trouble with a glass every night, is that by the time you realise you can’t go without you’re already in trouble.

If you are taking days off at least you can tell easier how you feel about that. If it’s fine when you don’t drink, you don’t think about it, don’t resent it, then fine. If you crave it on your days off and are counting the hours til your next drink then you know you’ve got a problem.

No the government should provide people with information to make informed choices as a consequence of their actions.

It shouldn't dictate to people what is good or bad, too risky or excessive (in the case of drinking anyway), because that is something for them personally to judge, not for the government to tell people what to do. That route just results in zealotry and excessive state control, as many threads on here on alcohol demonstrate.

To me, there is a pretty fine line between telling everyone they shouldn't drink more than X units a week and telling them they shouldn't drink at all, then actually moving towards banning it, which actually looks like the path we are going down if you look at the way "guidance" has changed historically.

If you are happy to have the government dictate these sorts of things in your life, fine.

@GasPanic The government & NHS has easily accessible legal charters, which outlines their commitment to the public ie what they should do. Not what your weird, irrelevant opinion is, but what their actual responsibilities and duties are.

Haha, yep, DH trots this one out every so often 🤣

Yes, other cultures seem to be very serious about their wine but often as an enhancement to their evening meal. And only a glass or so with plenty of water on the table. I’m sure it might seem strange to them, the concept of opening a bottle an hour or so before bedtime, if you finished dinner ages ago.

What on earth are you talking about? There is no "excessive state control" over alcohol usage in the UK, unless you consider it excessive to have minimum age restrictions for alcohol purchase or restrictions around certain activities such as drink driving. Nobody is legislating to tell you how many glasses of wine you can have with your dinner, and to the best of my knowledge, no mainstream political party is proposing to do this.

What the state is doing is issuing sensible public health guidelines about recommended limits on alcohol consumption, which are informed by extensive research.Yes of course these are based on averages and of course there are individual differences. However, very few people will have the necessary expertise to calculate exactly how much alcohol would be dangerous to them personally, as several very sad posts on this thread have already demonstrated. The general guidelines therefore serve a useful purpose. People are free to ignore those guidelines if they believe that they know better.

I am not sure if your posts reflect a wish to bury your head in the sand about your own drinking habits or whether you just have strong political objections to any public health guidance because you believe it to be a manifestation of what you perceive to be the "nanny state". Or perhaps some combination thereof.

Absolutely fine. My DM has had alcohol (special brew at lunch, g and t and a glass of red every evening) since retiring at 69. She is now 95 and amazingly with it.
Previously to retirement she would only have a glass of wine during the week, obviously more at weekends.

I was drinking a bottle of wine a night up until very recently. I didn't have hangovers but would feel tired and sluggish, my mum is an alcoholic and I didn't want to end up the same.
I've started Dry January, I'm on day 5 now, I haven't had any headaches or withdrawal symptoms but I have noticed how much better I feel in just a few days. I haven't found it difficult and it's really made me rethink my relationship with alcohol,

We are not specifically villifying drinking above being overweight
If this thread was I eat a family size bar of chocolate every day then there would be a load of posts of the burden overweight people put on the NHS
But the post is on alcohol so obviously that is the focus of the replies.

Yes i bet loads of people here eat a ton of chocolate, not their '5 a day' and have sugar in tea and coffee, hey too much coffee? how about smoking, or even smoking weed? How many are overweight, eat ready meals, dont walk, drive their kids to school? We all have our 'poison'!!!

Lots of good debate here. This thread is a great distraction from all my unfinished work!
I only want to add that the 14 units isnt a scientific safe limit. Its just a suggestion. As I understand it there can't be an actual safe limit as alcohol is a neuro toxin. There are no such things as safe limits for a substance that is poisonous.
I can't drink I became allergic about a decade ago. Menopause eh!
Alcohol the answer too all life's problems and the cause of them as that great philosopher Homer Simpson said.

Indeed. But if someone came on here asking if it was OK to regularly consume excessive amounts of chocolate, or smoke 20 a day or whatever, would you say yes, that's absolutely fine if it makes them happy? Or would you point out the obvious health risks associated with their habits?

I don't think anyone is judging you for drinking too much. As I said above, I'm far from perfect myself and I'm not in a position to judge. But you asked if we thought your drinking habit was OK, and lots of us are telling you truthfully - but not judgementally- that we think it's too much.

It's totally up to you what you choose to do with those opinions, but you did ask and we answered.

Yes i am having 2 wine free days as a result but there are lots of 'bad' things in life too, not just a couple of wines a night.

Exactly. Whilst it’s good to have a few days off I don’t agree with this ‘it’s a slippery slope’ nonsense. Everyone is different. Some people can’t stop at one glass. Therefore they need to be more careful. My drinking has decreased over the years not increased

Lots of people eat shit and don’t exercise. That’s harmful to your health.

Very few people are perfect. In that they don’t drink/smoke/ eat perfect diets/ exercise daily.

Didn’t the Queen Mum have a glass of champagne every day at around 3pm?

Sadly even a glass of wine disturbs my sleep these days so I tend not to drink in the week. It definitely doesn’t impact my mental health (there’s much joy to be had having a few glasses of wine and a good old laugh with friends). We are all different.

So OP, I think with just a few days off you’ll be fine.

That logic would suggest that there also isn't an unsafe amount as it depends on the specific person and their individual risk factors which is why someone can lead an incredibly unhealthy life and live to a ripe old age and, conversely, live a healthy life and die young. There is some correlation but a huge amount is predetermined. How much you want to mitigate your individual risk, knowing it may not make a difference, is down to you. Personally I enjoy wine and other bad things - I do what I can but would rather take the increased risk and enjoy my life. Others will have a different perspective.

All this talk about wine is now making me want a glass! I can't crack on day 5, can I?

The 14 units is an arbitrary made up number. See the discrepancy between countries…

The worry is you said it makes you happy!

Oh god, I do nearly all of these but don't smoke weed or chocolate often and am not overweight. I have sugar in coffee, don't exercise, drive everywhere I can and drank wine daily until January. I also drink a diet coke every day. Very bad. I would do better if I didn't have a full time job, 3 kids and a house to run as I would have more time to exercise, eat properly etc. I would still drink wine, coffee and diet coke though :)

*Mamabear2424 · Today 15:51

Yes i bet loads of people here eat a ton of chocolate, not their '5 a day' and have sugar in tea and coffee, hey too much coffee? how about smoking, or even smoking weed? How many are overweight, eat ready meals, dont walk, drive their kids to school? We all have our 'poison'!!!*

Respectfully @Mamabear2424 I think that other than an actual "ton" of chocolate all of the things you've listed are actually less harmful than alcohol, assuming we're talking about similar levels of overindulgence. just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it not true. There was a comparable risk table drawn up of various drugs a few years ago, which included scores for both harm to user and harm to society added together. The number 1 most harmful drug was alcohol. It came in quite a bit higher than heroin. And "smoking weed" was so far down the list it might as well have not even been included.

Of course it makes me happy! As a bar of chocolate would or a nice strong coffee,
Get over yourself ! already said ok not a good idea every day hence 2 free days from Monday!!!!