Alcohol-Free Booze - a Contradiction in Terms?

We older Australians suffer from a knotty contradiction. We tend to drink more alcohol than other age groups, yet the medical advice is to drink less.

I’m not talking about problem drinking but the daily boozing, which can easily cross the recommended line of 10 standard drinks a week.

To reduce their intake, a surprising number of us are turning to alcohol-free drinks. Is it a solution or merely a refreshing change?

I knocked off half a bottle of alcohol-free white wine last week, and it didn’t taste too flash, but a few tinnies of guilt-free beer turned out not too unlike the real thing.

After many years of generally insipid examples, the alcohol-free drinks industry has come of age. Imports and new technologies have helped.  The German wheat beers are a treat.

Wine sans alcohol is the fastest-growing drinks category in the country. There’s even a bar in Melbourne selling nothing but 100 different beers, wines, spirits and cocktails on offer that are all alcohol-free.

While the COVID research suggests we have been using the downtime to down even more booze, the pendulum is also swinging the other way in response to mindfulness, wellness and health movements.

An estimated 13.2 million Australians, or 66% of adults, do drink in an average month. While that percentage is falling, we still manage to down more than 400 million glasses of alcohol in that average four weeks.

A recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found people aged 50 years plus drink more regularly than other age groups.
 
Youngsters are more likely to binge and knock back 11-plus standard drinks in a session, but those aged 70-plus are more likely to drink daily. However, there’s been a marked decline in daily drinking to 10% amongst those in their sixties.
 
The report says there are specific risks for older Australians with alcohol linked to more than 60 different diseases such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.
So with beer, I tend to alternate between one booze-free and one not and over time, my taste for those which remove the risk of hangovers and excess calories is getting keener.

Have you tried alcohol-free drinks, and if so, are you convinced? Or are you one of those who believe they take away the ‘point’ of drinking?

Any information is general advice, it does not take into account your individual circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs.