Creative Wine Substitutes for Those Looking to Drink Less

Are you drinking every day? Even in small quantities, it could be damaging your health and mental wellbeing. Larger amounts carry greater risks not only to your body but to your social life and relationships.

Wine is a very popular beverage here in the UK. In fact, a 2019 YouGov survey showed that it was the preferred alcoholic beverage among Brits. Perhaps you are a regular wine consumer. If this is the case, and you are looking to either stop completely or drink less, there are ways you can achieve that goal.

Before getting to hard and fast tips for cutting down on wine consumption, it might be helpful to know why people in the UK drink so much wine. Drinking wine is not a bad thing in and of itself. But maybe you find yourself drinking more than you really want to. Perhaps, instead of thinking about wine by the glass, you’re more likely to think about it by the bottle.

Wine has been ingrained in British culture since the early post-war era. Needless to say, the wine culture in Britain is maturing, and as it matures, it’s attracting more people into the fold.

Tips & Tricks for Reducing Consumption

Depending on how much wine you drink and the length of time you’ve been drinking, you might experience some symptoms of withdrawal as you begin to cut down. These are normal. If you are concerned, don’t be afraid to talk to your doctor about it. With that said, here are some common tips for reducing wine consumption:

• Experiment with alternative beverages. A beverage is really just something to drink. If wine is just a beverage, make a point of choosing something else. If you drink wine for the cultural experience, take a good look at mocktails and exotic fruit juice combinations. An entire culture is springing up around them right now.
• Find other things to do. Rather than spending so much time engaged in the wine culture, try finding other things to do. Take up a new hobby. Implement a daily exercise regimen. You might even curl up with a good book and a cup of tea.
• Set moderate, achievable goals. Assuming you are looking to stop entirely, don’t try to stop all at once. Set yourself some reasonable goals, goals you can actually achieve. Reduce your consumption a little bit at a time until you are completely wine-free.
• Try Desistal supplements. Reducing your anxieties, sleeping better and stopping cravings for wine can help you quit more easily. Desistal contains three key ingredients to support you while you stop drinking wine.

As you begin reducing your wine intake, support from family members and friends will be very helpful. Find someone you can talk to, someone who will help you provide some self-accountability.

Attempting to stop drinking wine yourself and not being able to manage isn’t so unusual. Do not be afraid to talk to your doctor about previous failed attempts. There may be a medical treatment he or she can recommend. The point is not to give up even if you have tried and failed several times. Keep at it until you are victorious.

Is a Bottle of Wine a Day Too Much?

A bottle of wine a day is heavy drinking and very dangerous for your health. Any more than 5 drinks a day or 15 a week for men and 4 a day and 8 a week for women is considered heavy drinking. By this standard, a bottle of wine in one day is over the limit of heavy drinking; drinking one every day is over both the weekly and daily limits.

The risks of heavy drinking are clear from many studies. Most of your vital organs can be damaged by alcohol misuse, and it takes a toll on your mental health as well.

Millions of People Drink It

The previously mentioned 2019 study revealed that nearly thirty-four million people consider themselves regular wine drinkers. Brits consume about 1.07 billion litres of wine annually. So, what’s driving wine trends in the UK? In big cities like London, you have an adventurous wine culture heavily focused on artisanal and regional differences.

Meanwhile, in more progressive cities like Manchester and Bristol, the demographics are perfect for trendy wine bars and restaurants that do their part to push the wine culture forward. It is all made possible by a booming industry supported by hundreds of domestically and international vineyards and wineries.

Wine Itself Demands to Be Consumed

If you are not sure why the culture matters, think about how true wine aficionados react whenever a new artisanal wine comes to market. The product almost demands to be consumed. If you’re part of the culture, you have to drink. It is what the wine culture does.

If wine is just a beverage you consume with your meals, you can as easily choose water, fruit juice, tea, or something else. But when wine is part of the culture you engage in, there is almost a moral obligation to consume it as frequently as possible.

The culture itself has standards for selecting wine, all of which add to the enjoyment of consuming it. Here are four of those standards:

• Intrinsic qualities (grape variety, production method, vintage).
• Extrinsic qualities (brand names, label design, pricing).
• Attitudes and opinions (individual expertise, public perception, wine appreciation).
• Emotional responses (particularly feelings of pleasure that come with the experience).

How you feel about wine, along with your perceptions of yourself as a wine drinker, could be among the strongest motivations for what you do. That takes us to the core principle of how to stop drinking wine in a culture that loves it: change the way you think and feel.

Is Wine Good for You?

There has historically been lots of talk about the health benefits of wine. Some people even claim it is good for your heart and general longevity. Sadly, this is not true, and based on this study, only a very small amount of wine, less than a glass or two a week, might be beneficial to heart health in a small proportion of the population.

These studies were judged to be biased as the people surveyed were all in the upper-income bracket and had a moderate lifestyle, which was more likely the reason for their better health.

The largest study done by the Lancet, which surveyed over a period of 26 years across 28 million people, suggests that not only is the damage caused by alcohol greater than we think but there is no amount of alcohol that is safe.

The UK’s wine culture is pretty strong. It is so strong that it may have pulled you in without you even knowing it. But be strong and honour your commitment to stop drinking wine. Work on it a little bit each day. Over time, you can put away the bottle in favour of something else.