Unhelpful Headlines

I was reading the newspapers last week, when I came across all these headlines screaming things like ALCOHOL MAKES YOU LIVE LONGER!

Oh great.

It appears that the American College of Cardiology have done a twelve year study, concluding that a glass of wine a day can lower your risk of mortality, especially from cardiovascular disease.

I used to love articles like these.

Just as I'd started to realise that booze was ruining my life, and just as I'd managed to pluck up the courage to consider quitting for good, I'd read a headline like that and think Hurrah! No need to stop drinking after all! Wine is positively GOOD for me! It's Mediterranean for God's sake!

I'd picture myself, a contented wizened old crone at the age of one hundred and six, sitting in the sunshine with my carafe of vino while my great-great-grandchildren played happily around my feet, and I'd pour myself (another) large glass.

I never read the small print. Obviously.

As with all these studies, the small print states (in quite large letters, actually), that any more than a tiny amount of wine per day reverses this positive effect and becomes completely disadvantageous to your health in a myriad of different ways.

Over and over again studies have shown how closely boozing is linked to cancer, especially breast cancer. Obviously, I ignored all that - until I got breast cancer.

The main reason why red wine is always cited as being particularly beneficial is that it contains a compound called resveratrol which comes from the skin of red grapes and is rich in the lovely antioxidants that keep your heart healthy and guard against cancer.

Mmmm, I thought. Perhaps I should start drinking alcohol free red wine. All the benefits, none of the drawbacks. Simples.

So, I bought a yummy looking, frightfully cheap, bottle of alcohol free cabernet sauvignon.

I had a small glass with dinner, feeling smug about all that resveratrol.

That was surprisingly nice, I thought, perhaps I'll have another.

An hour later and I'd polished off most of the bottle! Good God, I'm totally useless! If I'm so hopeless at moderating the alcohol free stuff, even after two and a half years sober, imagine what I'd be like with the real thing!?! 

A helpful reminder.

So, I went to the supermarket and bought a large punnet of red grapes.

Love to you all,

SM x

Sober Drinks

One of the issues with giving up booze is knowing what on earth to drink.

Most non-alcoholic options are either super unhealthy (Coca-Cola, for example), or make you feel like a child or a geriatric (orange juice/elderflower cordial). It feels as if all 'adult' drinks are alcoholic.

Plus, we have programmed our brains over a period of decades, to equate a 'grown up' drink with winding down at the end of the day, de-stressing, celebrating and so on, so a good alcohol free replacement really helps to fool our brains into doing the same thing.

The trick is to find an alcohol free drink that is enough like the real thing to do the job, but not so much like your favourite tipple that it just triggers all your old thought patterns.

My go-to solution is Becks Blue beer, because I was never a beer drinker. I'm not sure I could have got through my first year without my Becks Blue. During the whole cancer thing I was drinking around six per day! (Now I'm down to around four a week).

Over Christmas I found a half decent alcohol free wine in Sainsbury (for only £2.99). At first this seemed like a really good idea, but within days I was feeling utterly dependant on my AF wine. I drank a whole bottle of the stuff on Christmas day and started to panic about my supplies running out.

Needless to say, I've come to the conclusion (again) that AF wine is just too close to the bone for me.

My latest find (and huge thanks to Dr C for the recommendation) is Seedlip (described as 'the world's first non-alcoholic spirits). They are properly distilled drinks with botanical flavours and taste very much like gin. I drink it with Fever Tree tonic or in mocktails.

(Here's a link to their website)

So, I'm gradually solving the 'what on earth to drink at 'wine-o-clock' dilemma, but it's often still really tough when you're not at home.

More and more pubs are serving AF beer (a recent study showed that one in ten women drink AF beer on a weekly basis, and 31% of people have tried it), but little else for the sober lady out and about other than 'children's drinks' and mixers.

Which is why my old drinking buddy (now sober for nine years), Jamie Walker, is a hero.

Jamie, and his childhood friend Tertia Bailey, are about to open an alcohol free pop-up bar in Edinburgh called DRY. It's in Stockbridge, at 15 North West Circus Place, until the end of February.

DRY will be open all day, serving food (provided by local pop-up food stalls), artisan teas and coffees and a whole host of craft AF beers, AF wines (not for me!) and mocktails. (I did check, by the way, and they are selling Seedlip).

Not only that, but to prove that sober venues are way cooler, more vibrant and more interesting than drunk ones, there's a host of entertainment planned, from cooking demos, poker and ping-pong, to quiz nights, guest speakers, teenage parties and burlesque lessons.

Jamie's even doing a 'silent disco' in the basement, where everyone wears headphones, so can limber up to the best DJs without disturbing the neighbours.

So, if you're anywhere near Edinburgh (I'm thinking of you, Edinburgh Housewife), then please support Jamie and Tertia by taking all your friends to DRY. If it's successful enough it'll hopefully keep trading past February and even roll out country-wide.

Vive la Revolution!

SM x