(Music-matching!)
It all began with a strange word: mocktail. At first, I thought it was just a fluffy word for cocktail —we have a ton in Spanish (cubata, loro, cacharro...). After diving into it, I discovered they call non-alcoholic cocktails that way.
By work of the Universe, booze is a recurrent topic that has appeared a few times during the past week.
The same mocktail thread brought other exciting thought: Is alcohol the next tobacco?
Depending on the part of the world you look at, alcohol consumption is more or less normalized. It is for sure the 1st world-class social lubricant, the gold standard. In some places, like Spain, drinking is so well socially accepted that it is difficult to question the status quo. Some people still believe that a couple of wine glasses a day is even beneficial for their health.
In a social environment, non-alcoholic beverages —or alcohol-free beer, to be more specific, are usually options only if you’re driving later or if you have some health issue / treatment but are not the 1st choice from a health standpoint. Beer (caña) by default.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging drinking. I defend liberty above all, and I enjoy having a drink with friends like the most. Although along with that liberty, data should come to make you think and help you make informed decisions. In the end, all spins around choosing the way of killing yourself.
I’m not going to tell you its side effects —surprise, surprise, cancer is on the list— but I’ll focus on the pure metrics so you can have a broader picture and probably size your intake better.
According to the latest WHO report from 2018* (I’d love to see data during and post-pandemic), the number of drinkers has been descending since 2000. Despite it, the consumed amount among drinkers is ascending. It also sets a unit to measure alcohol intake. 1 unit = 10 grams of alcohol. The danger zone sets between 18 and 28 units per week (female / male respectively) AKA 18-28 small 200ml beers. The UK does not differentiate and limits to 14 units per week. Regularly drinking more than 14 units a week seriously damage your health.
The most exciting part of all of this is the market response. Some big brands are starting to promote low-alcohol versions of their booze or even 0,0% —again, parallelisms with tobacco here.
Some other brands are developing a new category of products, aiming for the desired effects of alcohol without the side effects —don’t forget, the alcohol is a deppresant. It looks like CBD mocktails are a thing now, or recreative purpose nootropics, herbal mixes, and adaptogens alcohol-free spirits might become the next big thing in your local tabanco.
*I’ll link here again the 2018 WHO report. Spain is in the 311/411 pdf page or 290 by the footer number. It is a surprise that over 60% population is an abstainer in a country with 1 bar for every 165 people, the highest ratio in the EU.
Monday edition this time to not spoil you the boozy weekend with bad thoughts :P Hopefully, there is some time to reflect on it before the next one.
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Ten una buena semana