to enjoy wine every night?

[barnsleybelle]

Been to a football gala today with ds and got involved in a discussion about drinking.
I probably drink at least 2 glasses of wine every night. Sometimes half bottle sometimes full.
DH works away so my nights when dcs are in bed are my time. I look forward to my wine.
Anyway equal amounts of mums at the gala either agreed with me or were horrified.
What's the general opinion on here i wonder???

I am really glad the OP has set her stall out here. I think I drink too much, but whenever reading threads or talking to people, the most anyone will admit to is 'a couple of glasses of wine with dinner'which could mean anything, leaving people like me lurking around whistling sheepishly. OP has come right out and got a good convo going here.

Unfortunately for me, I think that the reason I really wanted to know how many others drink as much as me, is to reassure myself that it's OK to drink that much, but actually, I think in truth I believe I am doing myself some real harm.

I am much like the OP at the moment. DP and I drink a bottle of wine between us every night, then often open the second bottle and have a glass each from that.

I think we proabably are screwing our livers at least, especially me, because I am smaller than him.

I don't think that there has been such a generation of people who do the 'bottle of wine and telly thing' in the past. Of my parents' generation, none of them would really drink in the week, though they might get lashed at the weekend.

We had cut down for a long time whilst trying to conceive, just drinking at the weekend. I felt sooo much better, had much better moods and energy, and less impatient...I had not actually realised the impact it had on my life and that it was having a detrimental effect - I thought I just felt normal - not particularly unhappy or anything...it was only when I stopped for a while that I realised how much better I felt!

The reason I am drinking so much now is because I had a miscarriage and am drowning my sorrows, but we will go back to a healthier lifestyle when we come back from our holiday in August and start trying for a baby again. Hopefully

It sounds like a lot to me. I would go for a liver check up just to make sure all is okay. Am sure you are fine but if you do partake in more than a tipple every now and then it is always good to keep an eye on your health. Unfortunately the liver does not repair itself past a certain point so always best to look after it now so you don't have to worry about it later.

Ok, so let me re-iterate here. I do not drink a full bottle every night, just sometimes. I've read all the posts and have decided to have 2 free days a week to help my liver recover. (ive now said this on 5 posts... so please read the whole thread)
I have also said on at least one post that i had a recent LFT check for something entirely different and it was bang on.
Also as i've said on many of my posts i lead an exceptionally healthy lifestyle. Am a healthy eating freak and the whole family are very sporty and active.
This, i know will make a huge difference to my tolerance to alcohol.
chocho... I am sorry to hear of your miscarriage, and i wish you every success in your attempts at trying for another baby.

But tolerance isn't a good thing.

I disagree with the comments about drinking alone.

When the house is clean, the boy tucked up in bed and DH out with the boys, there is nothing more pleasurable than a glass of my favourite red, some valrhona and a good book, nothing that I have found any way.

barnsleybelle is an adult, she (presumably) knows the risk associated with drinking the amount she does and has decided that she enjoys it enough to balance it out.

No-one lives forever, I personally would prefer 50-60 good fun years where I don't worry about stuff to 80 years of constant monitoring what goes in. Others prefer the 80.

I'm not sure that having an exceptionally healthy lifestyle makes it OK to drink a lot though.

All it means is that you are healthier than if you drank the same amount but ate junk food and did no exercise as well.

i think it's a little bit much.

i'm the same - i drink 2-3 small glasses (only more on specia occasopns if spread out over half a day) 6-7 days a week, but i CAN'T cut down. it's the highlight of my day, my reward for all the hard work...

when i get pregnant however, i stop completely. but after giving birth drinking gradually kreeps up again...

DH and me used to have the rule to only drink at weekends (fr, sa, sun), then we introduced wednesday as "midweek top up day"... he can go wihtout drinking for ages but i can't.

after weeks i managed NOT to drink monday last week, i was so proud. but i didn't manage this week.

the thing is, i live healthy otherwise, and i never feel hungover the next morning, in contrast to when i was younger and drank fewer days but (a lot) more at a time.

so i'm not sure wether i actually drink too much ( in other countries they drink loads, e.g. france and are healthier than the brits...)...

looking at it in units i do drink too much, i think it adds up to around 14 glasses (i used to think this was equivalent with units), which is well over 20 units...

Nybom - I think it's a bit of a myth that the French drink lots of wine. They like their red wine sure, but every French person I know will nurse a glass for an hour or more - they don't knock it back like the Brits.

If not drinking one day a week is a huge battle for you then you have an issue with alcohol and should address it. You're currently drinking around 36 units a week which is way, way too much

In all fairness i'm not saying that having a healthy lifestyle means it's ok to drink a lot. It's just a way of explaining why some people are drunk after a bottle + rough the next day, whereas i am not. If i were drunk (of which i don't like the feeling of being) or rough the next day i would cut it down. I think it's the otherwise healthy lifestyle that means it doesn't affect me in the way i feel.
I know lots of people who are overweight, eat far to many cakes and pies and never do a minutes exercise. In my opinion they too are taking an enormous risk with their health. But food is something they take pleasure from. I know people who munch on chocolate, biscuits and crisps after the children are in bed. It's not because they are addicted, or because they are hungry, it's likely because they enjoy it and are happy to take the health risks to continue with something they enjoy.
Tis the same in my book..

Well, no, it's not the same. If it were then there would be laws about not driving after having eaten too many chocolate hob-nobs.

No that's just silly. The laws are their because alcohol affects your judgement and i'm not saying that chocolate does. We are talking about health risks long term and being overweight and not eating well or exercising have serious long term heath risks. Are you denying this?

People who drink regularly build a tolerance to alcohol and so do not feel or act drunk unless they down a seriously large amount.

People who drink once or twice a week are the ones who often say 'oo I'm pissed after 2 glasses'. Their liver is not used to it.

Being able to 'handle your drink' is to some extent based on genetics, to some extent based on your size and to a significant extent based on how much alcohol you regularly drink.

Or am I worng?

Spot on pointy!

Plus alcohol does have calories- 85 per small (125ml) glass of dry white wine - more when the % goes up. People who are overweight tend to put more weight on the more they drink, cutting out/down on alcohol consumption tends to lead to faster weight loss. Alcohol also stimulates the appetite so people tend to eat more snacks when drinking at home too. Plus alcohol tends to create fat storage around the abdomen creating the 'apple shape' which potentially creates more strain on the heart.

Everything in moderation - although people tend to over estimate what is ok for themselves. Age and lifestyle do play a part - the younger you are and the more active then you can probably balance your 'vices' better -however habits formed do become more difficult to shake off over time - OP it's good you've decided to consider a few alcohol free days per week.

because of this thread we have stopped drinking wine in the evenings except for weekends...it really made me think, and wonder why I felt I NEEDED it so much.

Barnsley, sorry but the reason you don't feel rough is because you have developed a tolerance to the alcohol, not because you are very fit.

Your logic is flawed.

I used to drink a lot and was quite unhealthy in my diet and it took a good bottle of wine to make me feel drunk.

Since DD I have made some lifestyle changes. No takeaways, very little booze and lots of fresh air and exercise. I'm fit and healthy, BMI 21, and I get absolutely pissed after just one glass of wine.

DH is the same. He had a hangover after two bottles of lager last week. He used to be able to drink pints of beer all night and not feel a thing.

Going on your argument only fit and healthy people would be able to drink without feeling rough which is clearly rubbish.

KingRolo - spot on with your comments

8oreighty us to. Realised we drank whenever we had a nice dinner or a hard day at work and the intake really crept up. Now we don't drink in the week and our tolerance level has sunk. After a glass or 2 at the weekend we both really feel it in the morning - which in turn makes us more careful about overdoing it.

I love and adore good wine and the way it makes me feel. So now quality not quantity if you are not drinking so much easier to justify buying decent stuff.

King rolo is right

Well can i just say how pleased i am that i started this thread. It's been very civilised with no nastiness. Plus i have been very interested in everyones thoughts and feelings on this. Thanks to everyone who has took the time to explain what they think.

As a result of the thread i have learnt 2 things.

1. I honestly do enjoy my wine and as i can afford it and it doesn't affect my home life in any way i'm going to carry on taking my enjoyment in this way.... However...
2. I loved the link that someone provided me with back on the 1st page. It gave advice to try to have 2 alcohol free nights in a row to allow the liver time to recover. This i am going to do. I don't have to try and do it as i don't need to drink and often do miss a night. However i will now ensure my 2 nights are together.

Thanks again everyone, particularly to expat ( who i agreed with ) and also to pointy who has continued to come back to the thread and who i have enjoyed bantering with no end...

If you feel comfortable drinking 2-3 glasses of wine a night then that sounds absolutely fine to me. There has even been research which showed that if you drink that amount of red wine then there are health benefits.

I'm afraid that I have heard so much contradictory government health advice over the last thirty years that I now take it with quite a large a pinch of salt.
The way that other scientific research is reported in the daily press is also often deeply flawed.

I discussed this with a doctor friend a few years ago and he said that the real problems caused by alcohol consumption (eg chirrosis of the liver) are not caused by beer and wine (which have relatively high water content) but by spirits.

This why alcopops are such an evil because they are made with a spirit base (usually rum).

I agree - but for me I had to stop and think why I was so emotionally dependent on it. I think I am actually addicted to it in order to relax, so thought I'd better try to stop a few nights in a row just to prove to myself that I can.

Sorry JV - that thinking is flawed,it's the actual quantity of alcohol that's drunk not the type. One bottle of wine contains 10 units equivalent to 5 pints of beer. If you drank 5 pints a night, every night it would likely cause the same damage as drinking 10 units of spirits. The alcohol still has to be broken down in the liver.

That's an interesting point - what about if you considered your wine intake as it's equivalent in spirits? Say 2 home glasses of wine - half a bottle- 5 units = 5 measures of whisky/gin/vodka - would you drink the same amounts?

LA - the alcohol in spirits is much more concentrated and is therefore absorbed much quicker than with wine or beer.

Also, the greater amount of water in the beer/wine helps the liver metabolise the alcohol.

JV - yes re- concentrate- but still depends on contents of stomach, how quickly you drink etc.

Alcohol dehydrates the body - acts as a diuretic - so although beer and wine are dilute in comparison to spirits your body quickly expels the excess fluid.

I think it is dangerous to assume that beer drinkers do not get cirrhosis - infact they are just as likely to suffer as the spirit drinkers - back to quantity again.Plus the strengths of wine and beer are increasing and this needs to be taken into account too.

I really, REALLY wasn't going to get involved with this thread, but ...

SGB - "Bear in mind that we are ALL going to die. Of something. You can be a self-denying, god-bothering, cat-sbum-mouth at everyone else and get killed by a pint of frozen piss falling out of an aeroplane - or get cancer of some description because o one actually knows what causes some cancers."

Surely you can see that some of us have very good reasons for not drinking that have nothing to do with being a killjoy or "god-botherer"? I really hate this dichotomy that one is either a drinker or in some way suspect, "you're either for us or against us." FWIW having had a quick skim through the postings on here, I have spilt more than most of the posters admit to drinking, and the quantities the OP herself is talking about are those I would normally associate with a slap-up breakfast. Nevertheless, I have no opinion on how much other people should or should not drink, though I reserve the right to be bored and irritated by drunk people.

Perhaps, SGB, you did not mean to lump all us non-drinkers together - but it does come across like that and it's a bit annoying TBH.