While some sober folks might be taking a brief hiatus during the World Cup, more and more people are moving away from alcohol.
\nIt\u2019s a significant part of British culture in particular, and we\u2019ll all probably cherish our memories of our first pint, but these days it\u2019s just not as prevalent as it used to be.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a number of factors for that, whether it\u2019s the amount of money it costs to buy a pint these days, or people simply preferring to spend their weekends without a hangover.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the biggest reason for banishing the booze is the health benefits you can enjoy, with those who have gone sober waxing lyriclal about the way its turned their life around, with improved sleep and mood one of the biggest factors people are noticing.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t want to give up entirely but do want to reduce your intake, without taking part in Dry January, then it\u2019s long been thought that you should be aiming for fewer than 14 units per week. Any more than that, and you could quickly find yourself in trouble.<\/p>\n
A few too many drinks could shave months off your life (Getty Stock)
\nThat\u2019s certainly the opinion of the experts, with John Holmes, professor of \u00adalcohol policy at the University of Sheffield, helping to quantify that guideline back in 2016.<\/p>\n
He told the Daily Mail: \u201cThere is no magic number here \u2013 no cliff edge where, if you drink below that level you\u2019re safe to drink, and over that and you\u2019re going to die.<\/p>\n
\u201cBroadly speaking, the risk increases with each additional drink you consume, and it increases particularly sharply for higher levels of consumption. Ultimately, it\u2019s just a guideline not a limit, as it\u2019s often described.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naturally, the more you drink, the more your body is likely to suffer, with studies previously identifying just how bad for us even one drink can be.<\/p>\n
Professor Holmes explains: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of uncertainty in the \u201914 units\u2019 figure, and probably a range which is acceptable, which might be up to 21 units.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s set at 14 because we also had to consider what we wanted the new guideline to do in terms of changing behaviour. We needed it to be easily understandable, something we could defend scientifically, and it had to communicate this message that the evidence of risk from alcohol had increased since the previous guidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to keep your risk low, the idea is you keep this number in mind. If you have 15 to 16 units a week, you\u2019ve slightly increased your risk, but it\u2019s not huge. If you\u2019re having 20 to 30 units a week, you\u2019ve substantially increased your risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that so many are going sober (Getty Stock)
\nSir David Spiegelhalter, echoed these thoughts while speaking with the Maill on Sunday: \u2018The UK recommended limits are described as \u2018low-risk\u2019, but this does not mean that anything above this is \u2018high-risk\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be wrong if people thought that drinking anything above the recommended limits is necessarily harming them \u2014 they could perhaps be considered as aspirational targets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The professor pointed to a mahjor study which was published back in 2018 which was based on 600,000 drinkers and 40,000 deaths at the hands of alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe study estimated that, compared with people drinking within current UK guidelines, those that drank up to twice the current guidelines had, on average, around six months lower life expectancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, any effect of additional alcohol will vary hugely between people, but this gives an idea of the \u00admagnitude of the trade-off.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, unless you fancy shaving off a few months with those few extra pints, it might be best to give zebra striping a try for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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