The latest advice on drinking now includes having a couple of alcohol free days a week. While not keen on much of the nanny stateism that comes from the likes of Ian Gilmour, this is a perfectly sensible suggestion I'd say and something I have been doing all my drinking life. In fact I aim (not always successfully) for three. The term AFD (Alcohol Free Day) is weel kent in Tandleman Towers.While nobody in their right mind believes the government's safe drinking limit, it seems an easily achievable and sensible precaution to me. The liver far from being evil, is kind of a necessity I believe.
Holidays and National Winter Ales Festival are excepted from the above of course.
I was also amazed to hear Gilmour say that having a couple of AFDs is a good indicator that you are not alcohol dependent. Well I never.
Arguably that is more in line with real-world drinking patterns than suggesting you are a "hazardous drinker" if you exceed one and a half pints in any one day. But the problem with all these guidelines is not that they are bad advice in themselves, but the implication that you fall off a cliff of risk if you exceed them by even a small amount, which is nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI agree it's a more sensible approach than saying that if you have 21 units you're fine, but if you have 22, you and yours will be damned unto the 7th generation.
ReplyDeleteBut I do wonder how far Ian Gilmour knows what he's talking about. I've known quite a few alcoholics in my time, and most were capable of taking a couple of days off the booze - even weeks occasionally.
There are a few reasons why I usually drink on only 2 or 3 days a week (mostly) nowadays. Firstly, as I get older it is harder to cope with the morning after mid week drinking when work beckons. Also, I've gained a liking for sitting at home with a few strong Belgian or other quality bottled beers with farmhouse cheese. Pleasurable as that is, it is disasterous for the waistline if done too often. Finally, the cost of a night out isn't cheap with the £3 pint starting to rear its ugly head in my area. So its not that I don't want to drink every night, I just don't bother anymore.
ReplyDeleteIn my sad, pub-less life, I drink mostly at home, except during Biergarten weather. I "limit myself" to around 2 litres a day, mostly homebrew under 3.5% alcohol, weekends somewhat more. Seems to work for me, day in, day out.
ReplyDeleteIf I *did* have pubs here though, then I probably *would* need dry days.
3 BFD's a week for me, normally, too. Purely because I actually care about my health. I'm sometimes shocked when I find out how much some people (albeit in the industry - brewers, beer writers, publicans) actually drink.
ReplyDeleteI think I sort of actually care about my health too. It has just felt right for me not to drink every day and anyway as I get older, I'm completely fucked if I do, so there is a practical here and now reason too.
ReplyDeleteStill have 6 or 7 quite happily though sometimes, so fuck you Gilmour.
If I have my four units a day for five days im owed a unit? Im going to stick to the usual 21 units on a Sunday evening and then another 21 units after midnight thus still getting the right ammount of units a week. It would therefore be more helpful if the authorities allowed later licensing on a Sunday.
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