My experience has been dealing with FASD or strongly-suspected FASD kids is incredibly, incredibly difficult. Quote-unquote typical parenting or teaching techniques are of no use, and even what you learn for general "trauma" issues I have found to be inadequate. It really is above and beyond other issues I have dealt with.
Not mentioned in the article, but is there any analogous research on the effects of heavy drinking by the father in the 90 days before conception on offspring?
(I don't know about 90 days but there's pretty extensive studies on how paternal alcohol use can affect fertility, motility, and behavioral outcomes including downstream of possible epigenetic shifts. That said I think you're probably pretty safe to ply the missus with a glass of wine before Adult Time)
I can live without beer. I can do without liquor and cocktails, I suppose. But I absolutely cannot imagine a world without wine. What a terrible place that would be.
I stopped drinking years ago, and have recently tried several of the different non alcoholic beers available. However I always notice something suspiciously like a minor hangover an hour or two after drinking one, which seems odd. Has anyone else noticed anything similar?
Heineken zero it doesn't happen on, nor Corona Zero (although that stuff tastes like shit anyway). Some of the craft IPA Zero beers either get me a bit drunk feeling or just give me a hangover after 2.
I notice they taste pretty sweet, especially the 0.0 ones. If you feel a crash or headache after drinking soda, then maybe it's similar for those NA beers.
In the USA they must be below .5% abv. Almost all are much lower as that removed alcohol can be used in other products such as hard seltzers or rtd's. (A macro light beer is around 4.1%)
Also alcohol labeling has a small wiggle room but .8 bring zero is incorrect. If it's labeled at 5%. The manufacturer can legally sell it at a .3% wiggle so 4.7% to 5.3%.
Haha yeah funny you mention that. If I drink two I feel it just slightly the next day. I’m a super lightweight - don’t drink at all - and yeah definitely something there. They have 0.5% alcohol- most seem to anyway including Athletic which I’m a huge fan of. I think even that little has a small effect.
Anyone else here stopped drinking? I've noticed a marked improvement in my cognitive ability and recall. Two specifics: Flying single pilot IFR is actually fun, even at night in the clouds in busy airspace with departure procedures etc. Secondly, learning new things that are hard is easier. As a third I'd also add running tech calls with smart engineers where I'm coordinating the call and holding several things in a queue in my brain as the meeting progresses, and systematically working through them as items are added is easier.
I stopped smoking weed and drinking around the same time a few years ago, though I was never drinking in excess. I will still have a beer every once in a while (maybe once a month) but largely prefer sparkling water, NA beer, etc.
I too noticed a sizable difference in my mood, cognition, and general well being. I exercise daily and any day I drink even a single beer now affects me the next day, so I largely avoid it. Best life change I ever made!
I went the next step and started paying very close attention to what food does to me,mentaly and physicaly.I am very physical and at 60 had abused myself wholesale "too much of everything....is just enough",and now there is nothing interesting
in the tickle trunk,but life is fun and there are
endless challenging things to do,so I took a couple of big steps DOWN the food chain and WOW
lots of other little dietery details,many just to
ensure that my food is exciting and pleasurable
my one last jangle is esspresso,one cup before
daylight,interesting that the stuff never got made
illegal
About 4 years ago, I got really into strength training and running.
I quickly discovered that even a little (3oz of whiskey (2 shots)) would measurably and negatively affect my next day's workout. Usually just performance, but sometimes up to the point of actually making me nauseous during the workout.
Prior to getting into a running/workout routine, I was no lightweight, I could easily down ~10oz whiskey and have room for more.
I feel substantially better and more consistently better without alcohol.
I've tried alcohol a few times since and everytime I regret it the next day.
I've never stopped (moderate) drinking, but I have sometimes spent periods of 3-6 months without drinking for various reasons (e.g. living in countries with expensive alcohol, and/or non-alcoholic beverages that tasted great, or during the pandemic lockdowns when I had no social life) and I have never noticed any change at all, so I'm always surprised by these accounts of stopping drinking being life-changing.
I wonder if all these reports of various changes for the better after stopping drinking (moderately, of course, not talking about people with alcoholism problems) are just placebo effect or it's that people's bodies work differently and for some people a few beers or wines a week may be a big deal whereas others are unaffected.
Nights that I have alcohol can easily be seen in my sleep tracker (I fall asleep easily, but then have a very disrupted night of sleep). In my food tracker (Excessive carb intake). And in the fitness tracker (higher average heart-rate with lower distance/weight)
I think the thing that got me to quit is that I kept on meeting the most messed up people or hearing of them basically just dying or accidentally/intentionally killing people while drunk. People who would in their disinhibition ask or tell me the most headed shit too, I think the guy in a tropical country asking me if I knew where to buy a human liver with a beer in his hand was probably what you could call a highlight in this regard.
If asian grocery stores are a thing in your area the nonalcoholic Japanese plum wine (umeshu) drinks are super delicious
I've found a happy ground where I'm healthy and have a chance to have a blow-out every so often: 48 weeks in the year I'm a pescatarian teetotaller, and the other 4 I drink and eat what I like. Works brilliantly, and means I'm fresh most of the time, and get to enjoy everything the world has to offer.
Those four weeks are Christmas, Easter, Summer hols, and another holiday week.
I have no doubt that any amount of alcohol within 24h of doing a hop in the soup is playing with fire. But absolute abstention? I dunno.
As for flying in IMC, modern avionics makes that stuff much easier. Getting an instrument rating has become more of an effort in mastering procedural complexity than any relevant flying skill. I did my rating almost 40 years ago. It took a different mind-set with basic steam-punk instruments.
Nephew got his rating about three years ago and has about 700 hours, with about 150 on the gauges, but all done with the modern stuff that does the situational awareness thinking for you. We were shooting an RNAV in the soup last winter in my old bird with mostly old stuff in the panel. He never got stabilized and I had to take the bird and took a missed approach.
His comment was that it should be illegal to fly in IMC with that "old shit". Whatever. Never bothered me any. And I have a few beers per week, but never within 48h of screeching "clear prop".
I'll tell what should be illegal: my wife's pork tacos without beer.
I had to deal with a health scare about four years ago while in the middle of the first covid lockdown. Going cold turkey on alcohol, smoking and sugary processed foods out of fear for my life was probably the best thing I've done for myself. Not to mention the fact that I've saved a shitload of money as a consequence of that.
What's great is that I absolutely resent the taste and smell of alcoholic drinks now. I've tried on a couple of occassions to drink a beer and couldn't even get through a single sip.
I have. I was a 0-2 beer/ day drinker, usually when cooking dinner, so hardly problematic. Lots of “empty calories” and a growing tide of evidence though. I reasoned: if it’s easy to give it up, then it’s a no-brainer. If it’s _not_ easy to give it up, all the more reason.
I quit in 2018. While my drinking was not what you would typically think of as problematic, it was definitely in excess of what is considered moderate now. I am glad I quit and I don't miss it. NA beer is pretty good these days, especially the IPAs. That seems to meet my need for an occasional fun beverage and I don't miss the intoxicating effects at all. When I am around people drinking and I see their behavior and personality changes, it just reinforces my decision not to drink.
A lot of discussions about stopping drinking leave out precisely how much the person was drinking before. I can understand why, of course, but it does make it difficult for "non-drinkers" to grok how big the change could be on a person's health.
Thankfully for me, I've never been a heavy drinker, maybe having 1 or 2 beers in a period of a week or two, at most. I don't really hang out with heavy drinkers, so it surprised me when friends would mention they were drinking several alcoholic beverages a night regularly. I suppose it changed how I viewed discussions of people getting off alcohol. They've got a bigger hurdle to get over to stop drinking that much and would definitely see a big change on their health and their budget. If I stopped having it at all, I probably would not notice a difference.
I think "heavy drinking" is something that people interpret differently. In some cultures having a couple of beers a day (example, Germany, Scandinavia) or a couple of glasses of wine (France) would be pretty normal while some other people might view daily drinking as a "problem."
To me it's a problem if you can't stop when you want to or feel cravings when you do. Like I said I'll have a bourbon or two occasionally but I also go weeks sometimes without drinking at all. Sometimes, around the holidays especially or when a group of friends gets together I'll drink more. This seems pretty normal to me.
There is a massive push to demonize drinking, you are seeing it everywhere. The numbers are always shocking but then you look at absolute increases, and a 100% increase in death from XYZ suddenly isn’t so bad.
Like everything, moderation is key. It’s incredible to me that the internet has become so negative on alcohol and so cavalier about marijuana. The latter is far worse for me in terms of productivity decrease and hangovers than alcohol. YMMV but the nuance and individual body results are heavily skewed in 2024
It's also a form of solvent abuse that causes something close to 3 million deaths a year [1] from not only its direct effects on the body but via accidents and violence caused by its effects on the mind. To get numbers here: "A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that 2.6 million deaths per year were attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths, and 0.6 million deaths to psychoactive drug use. Notably, 2 million of alcohol and 0.4 million of drug-attributable deaths were among men."
I don't really think anyone has to "demonize" the stuff, some people really pickle their brains in it, and then die
It readily dissolves organic tissues - Especially things like your stomach lining, or myelination in the brain. There's even some paint thinners which contain it. Just because people have been accustomed to it for thousands of years doesn't make these realities go away.
I remember one guy who drank a single light beer when we were hanging out watching the superbowl after he had already been told by the doctor not to drink anything from going hard in his younger days, and the next morning I got to take the day off work to bring him to the hospital to have his esophogas stapled up.
As a counter point the growth in non-alcoholic beers is staggering. Also non-alcoholic spirits (believe it or not) are going to be a big deal according to a buddy in the space.
If I could get a mojito mocktail that stung I'd be so pleased. Current mocktails taste like juice. Mojito mocktail is closest atm since it can be lower sugar & lean on mint/lime for kick, but still something missing
I think the "phony negroni" and Ghia brand NA drinks have a kind of Italian herbal punch to them that feels good on the tongue if you are someone who wants a boozy feel vs. sweet/juicy.
I'm really surprised that Kvass ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass - a fermented non-alcoholic drink) is not popular in the Western world. It tastes much better than beer.
It's about as alcoholic as perhaps kombucha or maybe a strong kefir, somewhere between 1-2 percent. With no tolerance, I definitely catch a nice little buzz if I have any of these things, they're about all I will enjoy at this point though. There's speculation that letting kids drink the stuff has been a contributor to heavy alcoholism in the former soviet union [1]
Kvass can be as low as 0.5% alcohol by weight, but traditional methods put it around 1%. The widely sold kvass in Soviet Union was 1% ABV.
I don't drink at all, so I'm pretty sensitive to the effects of alcohol. I can't detect them at all after drinking kvass. I could feel them after drinking a home-made and even some store-bought kombucha.
> There's speculation that letting kids drink the stuff has been a contributor to heavy alcoholism in the former soviet union
I doubt it. Other countries also have a tradition of fermented drinks, often based on milk, that are just as alcoholic.
I don't drink because I found it affects my other activities, like sports. Many years ago, I used to drink in moderation and really enjoyed red wine, cocktails, whisky, and vodka, in that order. However, I’m grateful to say I've maintained about 99% control over it. In social situations, there can be some pressure, but I stick to 0% alcohol beer, Coke, or water. If it's a meeting with new people, I often clarify that my decision is due to my strict sport training.
I drink once every 3-6 months when I go to dinner in situations where it is awkward to decline. My understanding is that there is no safe dose of alcohol, though less is better.
Absolute safety is a pretty meaningless objective as you approach infinitesimally small risks.
I find discussion of tiny marginal risks to be somewhat neurotic when there are so many real risks ( or passions) people could focus their attention on.
This sounds very defensive. I drink 1-4 standard drinks a night. (A pint of an IPA at 6.5% is about 1.8 standard drinks). It's not an "optimal" amount in some sense, but few things in life are.
My experience has been dealing with FASD or strongly-suspected FASD kids is incredibly, incredibly difficult. Quote-unquote typical parenting or teaching techniques are of no use, and even what you learn for general "trauma" issues I have found to be inadequate. It really is above and beyond other issues I have dealt with.
Not mentioned in the article, but is there any analogous research on the effects of heavy drinking by the father in the 90 days before conception on offspring?
Yes.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240801-fetal-alcohol-sy...
d... dad?
(I don't know about 90 days but there's pretty extensive studies on how paternal alcohol use can affect fertility, motility, and behavioral outcomes including downstream of possible epigenetic shifts. That said I think you're probably pretty safe to ply the missus with a glass of wine before Adult Time)
Yes. The research has conclusively proven an increased likelihood of offspring in those cases.
https://youtu.be/VwA5vrK6Qew?si=JlMSuH_suKmdNhDU
I can live without beer. I can do without liquor and cocktails, I suppose. But I absolutely cannot imagine a world without wine. What a terrible place that would be.
I stopped drinking years ago, and have recently tried several of the different non alcoholic beers available. However I always notice something suspiciously like a minor hangover an hour or two after drinking one, which seems odd. Has anyone else noticed anything similar?
You could be allergic to hops
Most non-alcoholic beers still have 0.5 grade. If you're fully detoxed and sensitive (or pregnant) that's enough to make you unwell.
Heineken zero it doesn't happen on, nor Corona Zero (although that stuff tastes like shit anyway). Some of the craft IPA Zero beers either get me a bit drunk feeling or just give me a hangover after 2.
I notice they taste pretty sweet, especially the 0.0 ones. If you feel a crash or headache after drinking soda, then maybe it's similar for those NA beers.
Non alcoholic beers still have a small percent of alcohol, but just below the lowest amount accepted to be non alcoholic.
It must depend on the country, but generally anything below 1% is considered OK (so 0.8% is marketable as 0%)
In the USA they must be below .5% abv. Almost all are much lower as that removed alcohol can be used in other products such as hard seltzers or rtd's. (A macro light beer is around 4.1%)
Also alcohol labeling has a small wiggle room but .8 bring zero is incorrect. If it's labeled at 5%. The manufacturer can legally sell it at a .3% wiggle so 4.7% to 5.3%.
My favorite "non-alcoholic" beer still has 0.5% ABV (Staropramen).
Staropramen is made from dead rats and radioactive waste.
Sugar crash?
Haha yeah funny you mention that. If I drink two I feel it just slightly the next day. I’m a super lightweight - don’t drink at all - and yeah definitely something there. They have 0.5% alcohol- most seem to anyway including Athletic which I’m a huge fan of. I think even that little has a small effect.
Considering the scientific and cultural advance of many Islamic countries is all the proof I need that no alcohol makes you smarter and more peaceful.
Anyone else here stopped drinking? I've noticed a marked improvement in my cognitive ability and recall. Two specifics: Flying single pilot IFR is actually fun, even at night in the clouds in busy airspace with departure procedures etc. Secondly, learning new things that are hard is easier. As a third I'd also add running tech calls with smart engineers where I'm coordinating the call and holding several things in a queue in my brain as the meeting progresses, and systematically working through them as items are added is easier.
I stopped smoking weed and drinking around the same time a few years ago, though I was never drinking in excess. I will still have a beer every once in a while (maybe once a month) but largely prefer sparkling water, NA beer, etc.
I too noticed a sizable difference in my mood, cognition, and general well being. I exercise daily and any day I drink even a single beer now affects me the next day, so I largely avoid it. Best life change I ever made!
I went the next step and started paying very close attention to what food does to me,mentaly and physicaly.I am very physical and at 60 had abused myself wholesale "too much of everything....is just enough",and now there is nothing interesting in the tickle trunk,but life is fun and there are endless challenging things to do,so I took a couple of big steps DOWN the food chain and WOW lots of other little dietery details,many just to ensure that my food is exciting and pleasurable my one last jangle is esspresso,one cup before daylight,interesting that the stuff never got made illegal
Similarly here! I also lost 45 lbs around the last 4 years (210->165), attributing it to cutting out lots of sugar and other junk. Cheers to you!
About 4 years ago, I got really into strength training and running.
I quickly discovered that even a little (3oz of whiskey (2 shots)) would measurably and negatively affect my next day's workout. Usually just performance, but sometimes up to the point of actually making me nauseous during the workout.
Prior to getting into a running/workout routine, I was no lightweight, I could easily down ~10oz whiskey and have room for more.
I feel substantially better and more consistently better without alcohol.
I've tried alcohol a few times since and everytime I regret it the next day.
I stopped drinking 10 years ago and noticed no change. Did not lose weight, did not improve cognitive ability.
I've never stopped (moderate) drinking, but I have sometimes spent periods of 3-6 months without drinking for various reasons (e.g. living in countries with expensive alcohol, and/or non-alcoholic beverages that tasted great, or during the pandemic lockdowns when I had no social life) and I have never noticed any change at all, so I'm always surprised by these accounts of stopping drinking being life-changing.
I wonder if all these reports of various changes for the better after stopping drinking (moderately, of course, not talking about people with alcoholism problems) are just placebo effect or it's that people's bodies work differently and for some people a few beers or wines a week may be a big deal whereas others are unaffected.
There is no way this is "just placebo" for me.
I obsessively track everything I can, what I eat (https://cronometer.com/), how I sleep (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/autosleep-track-sleep-on-watch...), my exercise stats (apple fitness/health).
Nights that I have alcohol can easily be seen in my sleep tracker (I fall asleep easily, but then have a very disrupted night of sleep). In my food tracker (Excessive carb intake). And in the fitness tracker (higher average heart-rate with lower distance/weight)
I also did not lose weight but I recover from roller coasters faster.
I think the thing that got me to quit is that I kept on meeting the most messed up people or hearing of them basically just dying or accidentally/intentionally killing people while drunk. People who would in their disinhibition ask or tell me the most headed shit too, I think the guy in a tropical country asking me if I knew where to buy a human liver with a beer in his hand was probably what you could call a highlight in this regard.
If asian grocery stores are a thing in your area the nonalcoholic Japanese plum wine (umeshu) drinks are super delicious
I've found a happy ground where I'm healthy and have a chance to have a blow-out every so often: 48 weeks in the year I'm a pescatarian teetotaller, and the other 4 I drink and eat what I like. Works brilliantly, and means I'm fresh most of the time, and get to enjoy everything the world has to offer.
Those four weeks are Christmas, Easter, Summer hols, and another holiday week.
I have no doubt that any amount of alcohol within 24h of doing a hop in the soup is playing with fire. But absolute abstention? I dunno.
As for flying in IMC, modern avionics makes that stuff much easier. Getting an instrument rating has become more of an effort in mastering procedural complexity than any relevant flying skill. I did my rating almost 40 years ago. It took a different mind-set with basic steam-punk instruments.
Nephew got his rating about three years ago and has about 700 hours, with about 150 on the gauges, but all done with the modern stuff that does the situational awareness thinking for you. We were shooting an RNAV in the soup last winter in my old bird with mostly old stuff in the panel. He never got stabilized and I had to take the bird and took a missed approach.
His comment was that it should be illegal to fly in IMC with that "old shit". Whatever. Never bothered me any. And I have a few beers per week, but never within 48h of screeching "clear prop".
I'll tell what should be illegal: my wife's pork tacos without beer.
I had to deal with a health scare about four years ago while in the middle of the first covid lockdown. Going cold turkey on alcohol, smoking and sugary processed foods out of fear for my life was probably the best thing I've done for myself. Not to mention the fact that I've saved a shitload of money as a consequence of that.
What's great is that I absolutely resent the taste and smell of alcoholic drinks now. I've tried on a couple of occassions to drink a beer and couldn't even get through a single sip.
Five years sober now. No coincidence my income has doubled in that time. One day at a time!
I have. I was a 0-2 beer/ day drinker, usually when cooking dinner, so hardly problematic. Lots of “empty calories” and a growing tide of evidence though. I reasoned: if it’s easy to give it up, then it’s a no-brainer. If it’s _not_ easy to give it up, all the more reason.
I quit in 2018. While my drinking was not what you would typically think of as problematic, it was definitely in excess of what is considered moderate now. I am glad I quit and I don't miss it. NA beer is pretty good these days, especially the IPAs. That seems to meet my need for an occasional fun beverage and I don't miss the intoxicating effects at all. When I am around people drinking and I see their behavior and personality changes, it just reinforces my decision not to drink.
How much were you drinking before? I’ll have a bourbon or two once or twice a week and I don’t really notice any lasting effects from it.
A lot of discussions about stopping drinking leave out precisely how much the person was drinking before. I can understand why, of course, but it does make it difficult for "non-drinkers" to grok how big the change could be on a person's health.
Thankfully for me, I've never been a heavy drinker, maybe having 1 or 2 beers in a period of a week or two, at most. I don't really hang out with heavy drinkers, so it surprised me when friends would mention they were drinking several alcoholic beverages a night regularly. I suppose it changed how I viewed discussions of people getting off alcohol. They've got a bigger hurdle to get over to stop drinking that much and would definitely see a big change on their health and their budget. If I stopped having it at all, I probably would not notice a difference.
I think "heavy drinking" is something that people interpret differently. In some cultures having a couple of beers a day (example, Germany, Scandinavia) or a couple of glasses of wine (France) would be pretty normal while some other people might view daily drinking as a "problem."
To me it's a problem if you can't stop when you want to or feel cravings when you do. Like I said I'll have a bourbon or two occasionally but I also go weeks sometimes without drinking at all. Sometimes, around the holidays especially or when a group of friends gets together I'll drink more. This seems pretty normal to me.
Not much. Just wine and occasionally.
Wine is definitely something I tend feel the next day more than beer or spirits. It might be the sulfites?
I'm one of the lucky ones that do not tolerate alcohol at all. Give me 2 beers and I will be hangover next day. Congrats on stopping!
Are you sure you’re not just flying more now you’re not drinking?
Single pilot IFR being fun or scary mostly comes down to currency!
Scary? That would be a problem. Best to get with a CFII if that’s the case.
I suspect you mean proficiency. If you’re not current you’re not legal.
Yes I don't drink (<30yo). Feel great
There is a massive push to demonize drinking, you are seeing it everywhere. The numbers are always shocking but then you look at absolute increases, and a 100% increase in death from XYZ suddenly isn’t so bad.
Like everything, moderation is key. It’s incredible to me that the internet has become so negative on alcohol and so cavalier about marijuana. The latter is far worse for me in terms of productivity decrease and hangovers than alcohol. YMMV but the nuance and individual body results are heavily skewed in 2024
It's also a form of solvent abuse that causes something close to 3 million deaths a year [1] from not only its direct effects on the body but via accidents and violence caused by its effects on the mind. To get numbers here: "A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that 2.6 million deaths per year were attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths, and 0.6 million deaths to psychoactive drug use. Notably, 2 million of alcohol and 0.4 million of drug-attributable deaths were among men."
I don't really think anyone has to "demonize" the stuff, some people really pickle their brains in it, and then die
[1] https://www.who.int/news/item/25-06-2024-over-3-million-annu...
Solvent abuse is something different, such a glue sniffing.
It readily dissolves organic tissues - Especially things like your stomach lining, or myelination in the brain. There's even some paint thinners which contain it. Just because people have been accustomed to it for thousands of years doesn't make these realities go away.
I remember one guy who drank a single light beer when we were hanging out watching the superbowl after he had already been told by the doctor not to drink anything from going hard in his younger days, and the next morning I got to take the day off work to bring him to the hospital to have his esophogas stapled up.
That one guy definitely did not have a single light beer if he ended up at the hospital for oesophageal bleeding.
As a counter point the growth in non-alcoholic beers is staggering. Also non-alcoholic spirits (believe it or not) are going to be a big deal according to a buddy in the space.
If I could get a mojito mocktail that stung I'd be so pleased. Current mocktails taste like juice. Mojito mocktail is closest atm since it can be lower sugar & lean on mint/lime for kick, but still something missing
I think the "phony negroni" and Ghia brand NA drinks have a kind of Italian herbal punch to them that feels good on the tongue if you are someone who wants a boozy feel vs. sweet/juicy.
I'm really surprised that Kvass ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass - a fermented non-alcoholic drink) is not popular in the Western world. It tastes much better than beer.
It's about as alcoholic as perhaps kombucha or maybe a strong kefir, somewhere between 1-2 percent. With no tolerance, I definitely catch a nice little buzz if I have any of these things, they're about all I will enjoy at this point though. There's speculation that letting kids drink the stuff has been a contributor to heavy alcoholism in the former soviet union [1]
[1] https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article-abstract/44/5/529/18...
Kvass can be as low as 0.5% alcohol by weight, but traditional methods put it around 1%. The widely sold kvass in Soviet Union was 1% ABV.
I don't drink at all, so I'm pretty sensitive to the effects of alcohol. I can't detect them at all after drinking kvass. I could feel them after drinking a home-made and even some store-bought kombucha.
> There's speculation that letting kids drink the stuff has been a contributor to heavy alcoholism in the former soviet union
I doubt it. Other countries also have a tradition of fermented drinks, often based on milk, that are just as alcoholic.
I don't drink because I found it affects my other activities, like sports. Many years ago, I used to drink in moderation and really enjoyed red wine, cocktails, whisky, and vodka, in that order. However, I’m grateful to say I've maintained about 99% control over it. In social situations, there can be some pressure, but I stick to 0% alcohol beer, Coke, or water. If it's a meeting with new people, I often clarify that my decision is due to my strict sport training.
I drink once every 3-6 months when I go to dinner in situations where it is awkward to decline. My understanding is that there is no safe dose of alcohol, though less is better.
Absolute safety is a pretty meaningless objective as you approach infinitesimally small risks.
I find discussion of tiny marginal risks to be somewhat neurotic when there are so many real risks ( or passions) people could focus their attention on.
Indeed, nor is there a safe way to cross the street.
I only drink or smoke a little if I need to get out of my head to get mundane stuff done like laundry or house cleaning and stuff
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This sounds very defensive. I drink 1-4 standard drinks a night. (A pint of an IPA at 6.5% is about 1.8 standard drinks). It's not an "optimal" amount in some sense, but few things in life are.
I quit drinking because I was gonna die if I didn't. Getting more work done is a consequence I accept without relish.
That's fair. And good on you.