A glass of wine every night?

[grizeldagreen]

I've fallen into a habit of doing this pretty much every night. Just the one glass while cooking. I can make a bottle last over 4 nights doing this. So over a week it would be just less than two bottles. Does this sound ok from a consumption point of view?

To add I usually have a glass, eat my evening meal then have a cup of tea before bed! So it's not exactly a wild life. But I just find that a small glass of white wine adds something to my evening.

I’m very bemused by this, I do not track you across threads, I couldn’t even tell you if I’ve even read a post by you, and I don’t even recognise your user name. This thread is not about you and my post was not aimed at you specifically,

and my point stands.

Dont the French do this?

The op has had an alcohol problem in the past. It would not seem a good idea to drink every day, one glass will soon escalate if anything stressful occurs though tbh most people don't need a reason.

@Gloriia I have not had an alcohol problem lol. I drank a lot in Covid as did many people, it was unprecedented times. I never became addicted or unable to function.

Jesus people cannot have objective conversations about this at all can they.

Jesus people cannot have objective conversations about this at all can they.

but this isn't a random "do people drink too much in the UK?" is it..

You are sharing personal testimony about your alcohol intake - so what do you mean by "objective"?

Your first two sentences really are quite contradictory.

You said you drank a bottle a night, that is an alcohol problem. We all struggled during covid that is no excuse. With respect, your minimising it and excusing it contributes to the problem.

Completely fine and normal in my opinion, some of the responses here make me laugh, it's not a 'slippery slope' for everyone, in the real world plenty of people can have a glass a day without becoming alcoholics, just as they can enjoy a few pieces of chocolate a day without becoming morbidly obese. Life is for living and we are all going to die sooner or later - yes it's important to pay attention to health overall but it's also a balance. If you don't enjoy alcohol or have decided to abstain for health reasons then good for you, but it's not going to guarantee you a longer life than someone enjoying a glass a day so no need to make others feel guilty in order to justify your own choices!

I wear a fitness watch and the impact one(!) glass one wine has on my body is insane.

The two graphs attached are the difference between a normal evening and an evening with one glass of wine. The stress is measured in orange.

It’s not worth it to me. Even if I feel fine, my body clearly doesn’t agree.

So many "live, laugh, love" tropes in this post it's unreal.

If you don't enjoy alcohol or have decided to abstain for health reasons then good for you, but it's not going to guarantee you a longer life than someone enjoying a glass a day

You sure about that, @lilydragon ? Do you have the empirical or research stats to back that up, or are you just wanting to have a pop at the health conscious?

so no need to make others feel guilty in order to justify your own choices!

No one is doing this on here. But presenting simple facts about the health side effects of alcohol intake is seen as "making others feel guilty" - this is the level of debate on here.

Life is for living and we are all going to die sooner or later

in which case why don't we all eat and drink anything we want?!!

A lot of cancers are linked to frequent alcohol consumption. Smoking also used to be considered "fine and normal", it was even claimed to be healthy as the tobacco industry did such a magnificent job of obfuscating the science. We all found out in the end.

@Gloriia I take exception to a stranger on the internet diagnosing me with a drink problem. Yes I drank a lot during Covid but I was not dependent on it. I do not drink to those levels now and my drinking is not 'creeping up'. I enjoy a glass of wine while cooking then I happily put the bottle away. It may not be normal for you but it doesn't make me an alcoholic 😂

I know happy, healthy octogenarians who do this, but hey, what do they know

Why take exception to a stranger on the internet giving their opinion when you have gone on the internet to ask strangers for their opinion?

A bottle a night is a drink problem that is fact not my opinion. Everyone says they can control it, everyone says it isn't a problem.

You used to do a bottle a night, now you are drinking daily. Kindly, you need to stop altogether or at least have 2 or 3 booze free days a week. Can you do that, have you tried? Best wishes, genuinely.

My contributions to this thread have not been made to make people feel guilty. If they do feel guilty in any way after reading, then there’s an opportunity there to do some self reflection on why that might be.

Yes I will die anyway but I’d rather minimise (I said minimise) my chances of that being from cancer and therefore I take personal responsibility.

So 104 bottles of wine a year? Just for the sake of one glass in the early evening.

Even at the lowest end at £5 a bottle that's £520 or £43 a month ish. Probably not that bad if you can afford it. If you're spending £10 a bottle, it's really adding up IMO.

Call it 600 calories per bottle, that's 62,400 calories. In a dirty calculation (and this is up for debate!) that tots up to somewhere around 18lbs in human body fat you'll need to watch for and manage every year - if you're not changing anything else in your diet and exercise regime you'll put weight on without realising it.

I come from a family of alcoholics. You don't have to be reliant on the alcohol to get you out of bed each day to have a deeply unhealthy relationship with alcohol. To me, drinking alcohol daily is definitely a problem.

I am very fat. I'm making huge lifestyle changes, including my food and alcohol intakes. I'm not pretending it's all easy but I'm finding it useful to look at my problem behaviours in new ways. Money and calories count!

It would be normal here. I've been drinking at that sort of level for 40 years and it has never crept up.

I like the taste of alcohol. Most soft drinks are much too sweet for me and most of them are now full of artificial sweetener.

Well 2 bottles of wine a week is about 20 units so well over the recommended limit of 14.

Well crack on then!

Just replace it with a nice hot drink or smoothie every other night. It's not awful but not great health wise.

When it comes to alcohol less is better and none is best, in health terms. Only you can judge if what you drink is worth the increased health risk. Obviously the health risks rise as consumption rises.

Longstanding advice has been to have more than one alcohol free night each week to give the liver a break. Also, if your bottle only lasts four nights, you are likely drinking more than 2 units per night, so across seven days you are above the recommended weekly maximum (a bottle is usually estimated to be 10 units).

If you are drinking as some form of self-medication, that's not great and you are at risk of your consumption increasing. If you are not drinking as some form of self-medication, you might want to consider stopping for the health benefits.

So does everyone, but that doesn't change the science about drinking.

It’s absolutely fine!

This is mumsnet though, and you will get some people expressing outrage at anything more than a thimble of sherry at Xmas!

Are you still doing those mental Mental Gymnastics? I’m in bed because: I worked late last night performing an emergency operation/ I have flu / I have serious mobility issues/ I am a firefighter and was on duty last night/ my baby had me awake all night and I am catching up on some sleep / I am lazy and this is how I live.

You leaped to the last scenario but any of the others could be why I am still in bed.

Why do people say that drinking in excess of the NHS guidelines is 'absolutely fine'?

I am interested in this alterantive facts thinking. The science is very clear. There is no amount of alcohol that benefits health, it is always a negative in health terms (that old red wine story has been disproven now).