Much like smoking cigarettes, most people nowadays know that drinking excessively isn’t good for you. While you might just suffer from a bad hangover in the short term, there are long-term effects of excessive drinking which includes:
- Increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure
- Liver disease
- Weakened immune system
- Memory problems
- And more
New research now finds that alcohol use is a major cancer risk with over 700,000 cases of cancer worldwide attributed to alcohol. The most common alcohol-related cancers involved the esophagus, liver, and breast with the highest proportion of alcohol-related cancers found in eastern Asia and central and eastern Europe.
The greatest risk of developing cancer comes from excessive drinking. However, even those who drink moderately, one or two drinks a day, still contributed to more than 100,000 cases of cancer!
You might be asking yourself, but what about wine? Aren’t there studies that show drinking a glass of wine with your dinner is good for you? Much like how chocolate and coffee get lauded and then demonized in pop nutrition, it’s the same with wine. You can read more at this Pop Sci article, but in essence, it turns out that there are several issues with the way scientists have studied drinking including:
- comparing non-drinkers to moderate drinkers
- having a selection bias for relatively healthy moderate drinks
While there might be some health benefits, it’s negligible, especially when you consider that drinking drastically increases your risk of developing certain types of cancer.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a drink now and again. However, why not reduce your intake by drinking some delicious mocktails? Not only are they better for you than traditional cocktails, but they’re also delicious and somewhat nutritious. After all, you’ll be using fruit juices and tea instead of booze.
I hope you join me on this mocktail adventure to create the best non-alcoholic drinks that will be a hit at your next gathering.
