111: Why celebrities are going booze-free and how you can too

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hey everyone, before we kick off this episode, I wanted to let you know about my new Stop Struggling With. Food Guide. It's loaded with 50 of my favourite balanced recipes, but much more than that. It'll teach you how to go from an impulsive all or nothing eater to someone who actually knows what hunger feels like and who can eat slowly and mindfully. If it sounds good to you, then check the description to learn more.

Speaker 1: 0:36

So I haven't been drinking alcohol for about a year and a half, but the other night I had a glass of red wine. It was my anniversary eight years married, hooray for us. And this Pinot Noir ended up in my hand and I thought, sure, why not? And I drank it and I enjoyed it, because I do love the taste of wine. I'm not gonna lie. I grew up with my dad drinking Shiraz, teaching me how to discern the different flavors in wine. I've always considered myself a bit of a wine person. We have a pretty epic wine fridge in our garage, which my husband's pretty into.

Speaker 1: 1:12

But as I drank my glass of Pinot Noir, what I noticed is that, instead of feeling less anxious, I started to feel a little bit more stressed, more uneasy. I guess that was as the alcohol was hitting my system. It definitely felt fun, but as it started to wear off, I felt those familiar feelings of feeling not so good. And I had a realization the next morning when I woke up. Alcohol certainly makes your reality more grim and more anxious, so you become more likely to drink in order to escape your reality, which then makes reality worse, and then you're even more keen to escape it. And I think I used to be in this cycle where I was so anxious as a result of drinking that I had to drink again and it kept going like that. I would drink to make my problems better, and then I'd wake up the next day and I'd be anxious and tired and dehydrated and my problems were simply magnified. So there are a whole bunch of reasons why I went booze free, which I'm going to talk about in today's episode, and I was going to be talking about the popularity of going booze free or even just drinking a little bit less, because you don't have to commit to the word sober or saying I'm never drinking alcohol again. As you can see from me, I don't really drink that much, but every so often, if I feel like having something, I will, and I love that freedom and I love that flexibility. We're also going to be talking about the rising trend in the sober curious movement and how I think there's a growing number of people who are aware of how alcohol is impacting our health, our mental health, and how drinking a little bit less can start to make us feel a bit better.

Speaker 1: 2:47

So let's get into it. Hey everyone, I'm Lindy Cohen, dietician, nutritionist and host of this podcast, no Wellness Wankery, where we talk about the science behind nutrition. So you don't get bogged down on all the stuff that doesn't really make a big difference to your health, a bit overwhelmed by what is wellness and what is wankery behind nutrition. So you don't get bogged down on all the stuff that doesn't really make a big difference to your health, a bit overwhelmed by what is wellness and what is wankery. You are in the right place. I talk to experts and guests who share their best tips with us. Plus, I speak to real people just like you who are on their way to recovering from food obsession.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Now let's get into today's episode, which is all about celebrities who are going booze-free, and I guess what we can learn from them. Firstly, there is an increasing booze-free moment at the moment, and it is largely led by millennials, which I fall into, and our Gen Z generations, which I think surprise people that the young people are the ones really pushing for a little bit less drinking. And last year 400,000 Australians went alcohol free and most of those people were actually millennials. And I think this is largely due to the fact that if you turn up to a social event and you say I'm not drinking alcohol, you're not shunned, whereas perhaps when I was in university it certainly felt a whole lot more uncool to not drink alcohol. There has also been a huge increase in the amount of non-alcoholic drink options, so nowadays you can't go to a restaurant and typically they will have a non-alcoholic menu on their drinks menu that extends beyond just soft drinks, which I think is brilliant. And for me personally, being someone who does like the taste of alcohol, having those alcohol free options whether it's my pretend mojito or my no espresso martini certainly makes not drinking alcohol so much easier. I was at a party the other day. I looked around and I'd say at least half of the blokes, the men in the room, all millennial men, they were all drinking non-alcoholic beer and no one was batting an eye. And we're also seeing more celebrities who are talking about the fact that they're not drinking or they're not drinking that much. So let's talk about it.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Let's start with Adele, someone I really love her music. She's very lovable and in October 2023, adele talked about how she had stopped drinking for three and a half months. She's kind of always been on and off with her alcohol and the reason she said she stopped drinking was because, after her divorce from her ex-husband and after her estranged dad's death in May 2021, she wanted to go onto a self-discovery journey. She said that's one great way of really sort of getting to know yourself is just drinking water and being sober as anything. Now, I wish I could have done that in an Adele accent, but you're going to have to pretend it was her saying it.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Adele said I mean, I was literally borderline alcoholic for quite a lot of my twenties. I miss it so much and I think that's an interesting idea. Firstly, that you get to know yourself by not drinking alcohol. I certainly felt that way when I pulled back from alcohol going. I don't even know what adult me is like, because I have drunk so much alcohol so frequently throughout my life that it'd be lovely just to know who the person is who doesn't drink alcohol. How does my brain function? How does my body feel and, if anything, just at least once in your life, creating a gap, a little booze break where you go. I'm just going to try not drinking alcohol and see how it feels.

Speaker 1: 6:14

The other point she raises here is that she really missed drinking alcohol and likes the taste and likes the feeling, and I think that is totally valid and totally okay. Personally, for me I feel like my life is so much more enjoyable without drinking that much that I can't say I would swap how good I feel for the things I do miss about it. But there certainly are things I miss about drinking, about the ease of not having to think about what non-alcoholic options you can have when going out to a friend's place, to being part of something and just going with the flow. And even the taste is something that you know that Pinot Noir, once it touched my lips I was going hello, old friends, you are very delicious.

Speaker 1: 6:53

But I think the main thing I want to take away from Adele's story is how she used alcohol as a coping strategy, and so often alcohol is a way of numbing, of coping, of dealing with life In the same way. It's kind of like emotional eating We've had a hard day, or even sometimes a good day, and we're either celebrating or trying to drown out whatever it is that we are feeling by drinking alcohol. Now, there are so many possible coping strategies that we can turn to that don't include alcohol. So things like going for a walk, meditating, speaking to a psychologist, even talking to a friend, taking a moment for yourself and yet I think for me, from a very young age, whenever I was stressed, alcohol was always there. For me, it was something easy. But once again, remembering that drinking alcohol can feel like throwing gasoline on whatever it is that you are feeling. So, while you might feel like it's taking it away temporarily, it will probably come back in the aftermath and come back more intense, and the research backs me up on this. In 2012, a study found that those who rely on alcohol as a coping strategy for stress end up drinking a larger amount of alcohol, and that's compared to people who have a bunch of those other stress coping mechanisms. So you know meditation, running, yoga, breathing exercises, reaching out to friends or therapy.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Now, moving on, let's talk about Lucy Hale. She's an actress from Pretty Little Liars. I don't know if you know her. She kind of resonates with that millennial and Gen Z crowd, but she's 34 years old, so a millennial herself, and she talked about her decision to get sober after being a what I guess a textbook binge drinker. She said being sober is a hundred percent the best thing I've ever done for myself. But it doesn't mean it's easy, and alcohol quieted my mind. My brain just didn't shut off and it's exhausting. I was a textbook binge drinker. Blackout wouldn't remember what I did or what I said, which is scary. Now I think blacking out from alcohol is incredibly scary. Or even not remembering what happened, being hazy after a night of drinking, of feeling like you are a textbook binge drinker, where perhaps you don't drink during the week and the weekend rolls around and you drink huge amounts.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Now what we know from the research is that typically people who spread their alcohol consumption out over the week are healthier than those who do binge drinking. I guess it allows your body time to process through the toxins and get them out of your body, and it probably would have a much lighter effect on your mental wellbeing as well. So I think, if this is you, one option is to try and do that reduction in alcohol consumption where you go. I'm going to go on a little booze break, I'm going to see what it's like, and the other option is to change how you drink alcohol. So, instead of always drinking a large amount on the weekends, seeing whether or not it can be spread out, even that small change is going to make an improvement to your health and wellbeing.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Now, as I talked about, there is a decline in alcohol drinking in Australia over the past two decades and that is largely thanks to the teens and the young adults, and a 2019 survey, which was from the National Drug Strategy Household, found that the number of people in their 20s who are abstaining from alcohol more than doubled between 2001 and 2019, from 9% to 22%. So I like to think of this as this generation, the next generation coming through is very much about self-care. They're trying to care less about what other people think, and I think not drinking alcohol or not drinking as much alcohol is very much an act of self-care and self-acceptance. So often a lot of the drinking I used to do was because everyone else was drinking alcohol, and sometimes I think to myself if none of my friends drank alcohol no one drank it, would I still opt into this drink? And I don't think I would and therefore it kind of reminds me that quite a bit of my drinking alcohol has to do with the social situations and that if I were to hone in on what self-care feels like me, it would be not drinking all that much.

Speaker 1: 10:46

Let's talk about Miley Cyrus. Now. She is pretty much known as an ultimate party girl, but she said that she'd never had a drinking problem. However, she did say that she didn't think that moderation was her thing. She's like I'm not a moderation person, and it's good for her to be able to recognize that. She has been using her platform to spread the word about sober living and the benefits she has experienced since she hasn't been drinking alcohol. The reason she originally went alcohol free was in 2019, for vocal surgery, and that's where she said oh, actually I really like this. I love not waking up feeling groggy and I love that it allows me to live my best life.

Speaker 1: 11:25

She went booze free after thinking about her parents and her family history. She said my mom was adopted and I inherited some of the feelings she had of abandonment and proving that you're wanted and valuable. And she said my dad's parents divorced when he was three, so raised himself. His family history has a lot of addiction and mental health challenges, and I think for Miley, she experienced two things. One I like this version of myself, but I'm not drinking. I can still have fun.

Speaker 1: 11:51

We still think of Miley Cyrus as the ultimate party girl, even though she hasn't been drinking since 2019, which just goes to show you can party and you can not drink alcohol if that's your jam. And the other thing is she has this family history and we know from research around some family studies that have consistently demonstrated that there is a substantial genetic link to alcohol dependence. And I know for myself in my family history I have mental health conditions that go back at least on one side of my family, and noticing the difference it has on my mood has certainly been motivating. So I guess for you considering, is there any genetic link, genetic history that you can find with alcohol dependence, remembering the difference between alcohol and food and why we can kind of go cold turkey on it. Food is something you need for sustenance, for survival. You would literally die if you did not have food. Alcohol, on the other hand, is not essential to your survival, and that's why I think we can kind of think about these two things in a different light. One is something that ultimately poisons you and one is something that you need to breathe and live. So if you have that history of alcohol dependence in your family, you might want to consider going for a little bit more of a I guess extreme approach where you go, I am not going to have any alcohol and see how that makes me feel and see whether or not that is a lifestyle that I can maintain and to prevent myself from having to deal with the risks of alcohol dependence.

Speaker 1: 13:15

I will also say on the party front, that the other weekend I went to a festival yes, a festival. I put glitter in my hair, I got stomping boots on and I did not drink alcohol. I partied all night. Honestly, it was about six hours of dancing straight and I didn't have anything to drink. I have since been to a few other parties. I went salsa dancing the other night no alcohol. Dinners out with friends no alcohol. No one even realized I wasn't drinking alcohol, even when I went to the club. I went to a club, I don't know how, but I did, and I had a great time and I didn't drink alcohol.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Mind you, I've got to say around 11, 12 PM I start getting tired, and I noticed the people around me who were drinking alcohol. They don't get tired. So that is probably my biggest limitation and the fact that I get sleepy. But ultimately you know what my friends, I do have to wake up and parent the next day, so I happily get into bed and if I start the night early enough, I've still had several hours of lots of fun and I can also get a good night's sleep and wake up feeling fresh.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Let's talk about Kyle Richards. Now she's from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I personally am not really into reality TV, but it is a thing and people love it and they love Kyle Richards, and she has recently talked about her move into sobriety. She said before I would have felt like, well, I have to go and have drinks because everyone expects that from me to go and have fun. I don't feel like I need to do that anymore and I think that's the thing is. Once you've experienced drinking less alcohol, you go. Oh, okay, I see how this could work. Maybe you have a few moments of troubleshooting where you're going. Okay, I'm just trying to make it work. I'm experimenting with different ways of drinking less, or what I could try to say to people who ask me why I'm not drinking. And it starts to get easier and easier and easier. So she doesn't feel that pressure anymore.

Speaker 1: 15:09

Alcohol made me feel depressed the next day. This is what she says, no matter how much fun the night was before, and, honestly, life is going to throw us some difficult days. I certainly don't need to be adding any extra ones to that list, and let's talk about this idea. The lesson we can take away from Carl Richards is this idea of alcohol can be a trigger for anxiety and depression. I mean, we know anxiety the next day is so intense.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Now this is from the Alcohol and Drug Foundation and they explain how alcohol works on the brain's GABA receptor and basically releasing the GABA which makes you feel more relaxed. When you start drinking, you go okay, cool, this is fun, I'm having a great time Now as you continue to drink alcohol. Now, what also happens as you continue drinking alcohol is your brain shuts down glutamate, which makes you feel anxious. So if you don't have the stuff that's making you anxious, you start to feel more calm, more relaxed, and this is where your inhibitions start to lay to rest and you end up saying things. I end up saying things I often regret is because I don't have this control section of my brain activated. But as your alcohol starts to wear off, your brain tries to restore the normal chemicals. So it wants balance again, right. So it wants to reduce the brain's GABA, so you start feeling less calm and then it has to re-increase the glutamate, which means that you start feeling anxious again and what goes up must come down and I think that's the important thing the equivalent reduction in anxiety that you experience after you start drinking. You will feel that on the flip side, in increase in anxiety as you come down from the drug.

Speaker 1: 16:40

For me, I certainly felt this. The reason I don't drink that much alcohol anymore is because of my anxiety. I used to have very intense anxiety, which I talk about on this podcast and elsewhere, and when I stopped drinking alcohol especially as each month went on that I didn't drink alcohol I was like, oh, this is what it's like to not doubt everything I say, to not go through all my worst moments and replay them in my brain for hours before I try and fall asleep. It was so incredible to me after all the things I had tried to try and manage my anxiety. That I mean I say simply not drinking that much alcohol, but changing my relationship with it. It is a big deal, but that one change alone basically took away my anxiety. That was incredible to me and it still is incredible to me. So if you're someone who experiences anxiety, depression, you're struggling with your mental health. I think you owe it to yourself to go. What could life be like if I went on a little bit of a booze break? I temporarily pulled back from alcohol? It's just an experiment.

Speaker 1: 17:42

I think this idea of saying to yourself I am permanently going to stop drinking alcohol, I can never drink again, is incredibly scary. It makes me feel like a trapped animal, and the way I do it is. I tell myself I can always drink and I truly do mean it. Anytime I want a beverage that's got alcohol in it, I can have that drink, but I choose not to, and knowing that it's always there for me, that just means I can continue to be relaxed around drinking and not feel like it's a punishment.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Now let's talk about Blake Lively. She's divine, isn't she? We know we love her and we love her husband, ryan Reynolds, and, funnily enough, she doesn't drink. But he invented and runs Aviation Gin, which is a pretty huge gin company. But she basically says I don't drink because I don't like the effects of alcohol, but I like being part of it, I like being social, I like people coming together. It's just that I genuinely don't have a desire for.

Speaker 1: 18:33

It's not like I decided on these strict lifestyle choices and I'm enforcing them. And I think, like food, this is a very interesting thing where we kind of go, once we start to apply all these rules to food, we start going oh my God, I'm not allowed to have it. And then we eat it and then it feels it tastes so good. For example, I used to do this with peanut butter. I'm not allowed to have any peanut butter. And then next thing I know I'm secretly shoving teaspoons of peanut butter into my mouth. And the other day I went and I actually had a teaspoon of peanut butter and I put it in my mouth and I was like it's kind of dry. It makes my mouth like I need a lot of water and if I had the choice of all the things, I could eat peanut butter out of a jar like this. Just it's not doing it for me anymore, and I think that we sometimes do this to alcohol. If we say I'm not allowed to drink any of it, we put it on this pedestal and it becomes the secret thing, which is, once again, why I say we don't just say I'm not allowed to have it. We do allow ourselves permission, but we go. Do I even like it? And therefore it starts to become a choice and not something that we feel like we must do.

Speaker 1: 19:33

What we can take away from Blake Lively as well is that alcohol can have an impact on your family, on your relationships and the people that you are closest to. If you are considering drinking less alcohol, you are going to get questions from people who are going to go why aren't you drinking alcohol? You're pregnant. I bet you'll get at least one pregnancy question in your lifetime of not drinking alcohol. I think it's useful to have some default responses to people so you know what you can say when people inevitably ask these questions and you don't feel peer pressured. And what do you do if you do get peer pressured by people and you feel like you're being judged for not drinking alcohol? How do you go from a default drinker who's automatically saying, yes, I would like some rosé to the kind of person who's automatically opted out, and you can always opt in to have that rosé. What I'm talking about is how do you become a mindful drinker and not someone who just drinks because the bottle of wine needs to be finished?

Speaker 1: 20:27

Now, if you're curious to learn more about how to drink less or how to have a healthier relationship with alcohol, whether or not you want to not drink alcohol ever again or you just want to go on a little hiatus from booze then I highly recommend you check out Booze Break. Booze Break is the ultimate audio guide to help you change your relationship with alcohol, whether you want to break the habit or you want to learn how you can still be fun and have fun without alcohol, or you want to learn how you can still be fun and have fun without alcohol. It is a audio series that I created with Maz Compton, who hasn't drunk alcohol in eight years which is kind of crazy and myself a year and a half, with drinking a whole lot less, and we're sharing all the tried and true tips that we've learned the hard way, so you don't have to make the same mistakes that we've done If you want to go on a little hiatus from booze or stop drinking altogether, it doesn't matter. Booze break is a great way to experiment with drinking less or no alcohol, and if you're curious to learn more, then check the description, because I'll leave a link there. And that's the end of today's episode.

Speaker 1: 21:25

I really hope that you've enjoyed listening to it. If you like this episode or you like this podcast, please share it with someone who you like, or even an enemy, I mean, share it with them as well. They need some love as well. And, of course, please consider reviewing this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. I'd be so, so grateful. It really is very motivating for me to see that someone out there is listening other than just my mum, and it will encourage me to create more free content for you. Just like this. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I'll see you next week.