How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol

Plus: the health benefits of ginger

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The 10almonds Team
May 20, 2023

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Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

  • Ginger is good for many aspects of health, including:

    • For balanced cholesterol

    • Against inflammation

    • For balanced blood sugars

    • Against heart disease

      • …and more; check out today’s video for details!

  • Alcohol is bad for almost every part of health, but we can reduce the risks by reducing our consumption (see today’s main feature for details!)

  • Obé Fitness is a great online fitness platform with live and on-demand classes (see today’s sponsor section for details!)

  • High-risk heart attack patients could benefit from a long-term treatment with blood thinners

  • The brain-gut highway is a two-way street, and we can tackle our health in those respects from both sides

Read on to learn about these things and more…

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👀 WATCH AND LEARN

What happens if you eat ginger every day…

The daily recommended amount of ginger to ingest every day is 3 to 4 grams. Is it really worth the hype? Here are some little known facts about ginger:

Key ideas:

🍻 MAIN FEATURE

Rethinking Drinking

When we’re looking at certain health risks, there are often five key lifestyle factors that have a big impact; they are:

  • Have a good diet

  • Get good exercise

  • Get good sleep

  • Reduce (or eliminate) alcohol

  • Don’t smoke

Today, we’re focussing the alcohol bit. Maybe you’d like to quit, maybe just cut down, maybe the topic just interests you… So, here’s a quick rundown of some things that will help make that a lot easier:

With a big enough “why”, you can overcome any “how”

Research and understand the harm done by drinking, including:

And especially as we get older, memory problems:

And as for fear of missing out, or perhaps even of no longer being relaxed/fun… Did you ever, while sober, have a very drunk person try to converse with you, and you thought “I wish that were me”?

Probably not 😉 

Know your triggers

Why do you drink? If your knee-jerk response is “because I like it”, dig deeper. What events prompt you to have a drink?

  • Some will be pure habit born of convention—perhaps with a meal, for example

  • Others may be stress-management—after work, perhaps

  • Others may be pseudo-medicinal—a nightcap for better* sleep, for instance

*this will not work. Alcohol may make us sleepy but it will then proceed to disrupt that very sleep and make it less restorative

Become mindful

Now that you know why you’d like to drink less (or quit entirely), and you know what triggers you to drink, you can circumvent that a little, by making deals with yourself, for example

  • “I can drink alcohol, if and only if I have consumed a large glass of water first” (cuts out being thirsty as a trigger to drink)

  • “I can drink alcohol, if and only if I meditate for at least 5 minutes first” (reduces likelihood of stress-drinking)

  • “I can drink alcohol, if and only if it is with the largest meal of the day” (minimizes total alcohol consumption)

Note that these things also work around any FOMO, “Fear Of Missing Out”. It’s easier to say “no” when you know you can have it later if you still want it.

Get a good replacement drink

There are a lot of alcohol-free alcohol-like drinks around these days, and many of them are very good. Experiment and see. But!

It doesn’t even have to be that. Sometimes what we need is not even an alcohol-like drink, but rather, drinkable culinary entertainment.

If you like “punch-in-the-face” flavors (as this writer does), maybe strong black coffee is the answer. If you like “crisp and clear refreshment” (again, same), maybe your favorite herbal tea will do it for you. Or maybe for you it’ll be lemon-water. Or homemade ginger ale.

Whatever it is… make it fun, and make it yours!

Bonus item: find replacement coping strategies

This one goes if you’ve been using alcohol to cope with something. Stress, depression, anxiety, whatever it may be for you.

The thing is, it feels like it helps briefly in the moment, but it makes each of those things progressively worse in the long-run, so it’s not sustainable.

Consider instead things like therapy, exercise, and/or a new hobby to get immersed in; whatever works for you!

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❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Obé Fitness: Rewriting the Rules of Fitness!

The human body is built for movement, and as they say, "movement changes everything". We certainly agree.

Do you wish you could have the accountability of a fitness class, but not have to actually leave your house and go to it? We know the feeling, if so!

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Accessible via phones, tablets, computers, and smart TVs, you can enjoy not just the classes, but also a personalized workout plan, progress tracking, and a community forum to share your triumphs and connect with other users.

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🌍 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Gut Feelings: Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel - by Dr Will Cole

More and more, science is uncovering links between our gut health and the rest of our health—including our mental health! We all know "get some fiber and consider probiotics", but what else is there that we can do?

Quite a lot, actually. And part of it, which Dr. Cole also explores, is the fact that the gut-brain highway is a two-way street!

The book looks a lot especially at the particular relationship between shame and eating. The shame need not initially be about eating, though it can certainly end up that way too. But any kind of shame—be it relating to one's body, work, relationship, or anything else, can not only have a direct effect on the gut, but indirect too:

Once our "eating our feelings" instinct kicks in, things can spiral from there, after all.

So, Dr. Cole walks us through tackling this from both sides—nutrition and psychology. With chapters full of tips and tricks, plus a 21-day plan (not a diet plan, a habit integration plan), this book hits shame (and inflammation, incidentally) hard and leads us into much healthier habits and cycles.

In short: if you'd like to have a better relationship with your food, improve your gut health, and/or reduce inflammation, this is definitely a book for you!

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Wishing you a happy, healthy, and fulfilling weekend,

The 10almonds Team