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The chance that alcohol causes our death increases rapidly with the amount consumed. Drinking under 140ml a week is estimated to keep the chances of an alcohol death below 1/100. The only way to make the risk zero risk is to not drink any. ■
This is one of a collection of shareable alcohol messages. If you think more people should know, please share and join the supporters.
Acknowledging that the profit motive warps health information to generate sales can help us lead healthier, more rewarding lives, at lower risk and lower cost.
Businesses large and small routinely seek to emphasise potential health benefits of their products and services while minimising or denying downsides outright.
These one-sided stories are routinely retold uncritically in media coverage, ads, pharmacies, on labels and on the channels of online influencers.
Food, drink and supplement categories support rafts of flimsy studies to justify vague health claims. Alcohol’s was debunked for the umpteenth time this month.
To dismiss these claims is not to dismiss the products. They might bring us joy, relieve pain and make us feel better, just not a positive stepchange in our health or life expectancy.
The benefit of scepticism is it stops us overcommitting to a product based on unrealistic expectations, perhaps with downsides and side effects, not least disappointment.
Rather than becoming a super-consumer to serve a business interest we can consume in ways that make us feel better. Our time and money can be used for other things.
There are around seven things we can do to improve our long term health which a huge range of foods, drinks and activities can help us achieve in enjoyable ways.
Making choices to serve ourselves
Real medicines have third-party verification based on large scale medical trials, and even then some wrong-uns slip through the net.
Beyond this any implication of a product offering big health benefits should be a red flag to us, with any studies cited highly unlikely to withstand serious scrutiny.
Wellness influencers and media platforms are also iffy intermediaries, being largely funded by selling pricey supplements while promoting gurus with wares to sell.
This format is largely there to solve a revenue problem rather than address a health problem. We should not give uncredit to their most strikingly-positive health claims.
So too psychedelics and cannabis, which vested interest promote as health enhancing without robust health studies while, obviously, saying little about their risks.
Even austere practices like meditation have some rarely aired perils. The Dalai Lama himself was nonplussed to be told about them.
Yoga, massage, meditation or practices like cold exposure might help us feel good but will not “supercharge our immune system”, as some of their proponents say they will.
Being wary of the way commercial interests warp the truth is tiresome, but it is also a way to make choices which are less costly, less risky and more rewarding,
Industries’ main goal is revenue, whatever marketing category they might operate in, be it food, drink, health or wellness. Their health claims are not made to serve us.
The most reliable working assumption is to disbelieve health claims from non-medical businesses. ■
Updated 28.8.2024 to include response from Men’s Sheds.
The UK Men’s Sheds Association acknowledged concerns from health experts and shed users about its partnership with alcohol giant Diageo, while highlighting the benefits of the controversial deal.
“It is genuinely a response to harmful drinking especially in the 50-70 age group,” Men’s Shed chief executive Charlie Bethel told Alcohol Review. The 18-month pilot of the DrinkIQ-branded co-created product will allow the charity to assess its impact. One shed which closed now meets at a Wetherspoons, Bethel noted.
Bethel said some shed users have objected to the deal, but he said it is comparable to other charities taking money from National Lottery scratch cards. He said he could not speak for Diageo’s motives, but noted the success of its alcohol free beers. There is currently no evidence alcohol-free beer cuts harm.
“It’s prob too late but worth having a read of the evidence on partnerships with harmful product industries They don’t have men’s health–or women’s, for that matter–as a strategic aim,” said Greg Fell, President of the The Association Of Directors of Public Health (UK), on X at the time of the announcement in late July.
“There are other places to get your information about alcohol harm to help with recovery, addiction and mental health regarding alcohol than those that make it profit from it,” commented alcohol harm reduction campaigner Mick Unwin.
“This is a very unfortunate move by UK Men’s Sheds,” said Sheila Gilheany head of Alcohol Action Ireland, echoing the similar concerns about the expertise an alcohol company might have in offering information on alcohol harm.
“Very sad to see this corporate capture of Men’s Sheds,” said another commenter who sits on the board of a harm reduction charity. ■
At 8.1% France had the EU’s highest percentage of its beer production, exports and imports which is alcohol-free last year, according to Eurostat. Germany, which produced three times as much beer, came a close second. Hungary and the Czech Republic pushed Spain, the EU’s second largest beer producer, down to fifth place in terms of alcohol-free share but was comfortably above the EU average 5.6%. Belgium, the bloc’s third biggest beer producer, failed to qualify because there are no alcohol-free beer production figures, as was also the case with Italy. The numbers were also lacking for the Netherlands. ■
Note: The role alcohol-free beer might have in alcohol harm is unclear. It might help in some ways and might contribute to problems in others. More research is needed. There’s a discussion here.
Alcohol price controls should be among the steps used to reduce high alcohol consumption to prevent or delay two out of five dementia cases, says a new report from a Lancet commission.
The report also suggests “increased awareness of levels and risks of [alcohol] overconsumption” among 13 recommendations to reduce the risk or delay onset of dementia. A parallel study estimates £4bn ($5bn) annual savings in England.
“Healthy lifestyles that involve regular exercise, not smoking, cognitive activity in midlife… and avoiding excess alcohol can not only lower dementia risk but may also push back dementia onset,” said lead author Professor Gill Livingston of University College London.
“Overall, reduction of excessive alcohol or sustained light drinking is associated with a lower dementia risk than is excessive alcohol. A lack of clear evidence exists that not drinking alcohol increases the risk of dementia,” the report says.
Vision loss and high cholesterol were also added to 12 potentially modifiable risk factors identified in the previous iteration of the report in 2020. ■
The wisdom of making Euro 2024 a beer marketing bonanza should surely be questioned when alcohol deaths are still 30% above pre-pandemic levels in the UK and elsewhere.
Imagine a national football hero wreathed in heavenly light, carrying a holy relic to bless long ranks of beer cans as they emerge from a production line. “Bring it home!” our hero commands as the cans wheel past in obedient legions.
The message is clear for anybody witnessing this unlikely tableau. Any true admirer of this man and supporter of the national team with which he played must procure some of these magical cans and imbibe their contents.
It is satire gone too far, surely? It would require a world in which quasi-religious imagery was used to manipulate people into consuming a health-harming psychoactive product while watching sportspeople in their prime.
Well, absurd yes, but it is 2024 when the bedrock of satire is what underpins reality. This is the storyline of the all-too-real Budweiser ad for Euro 2024 featuring Geoff Hurst, sole survivor of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team.
England may not get far in the tournament, but they can come home safe in the knowledge they are forever a team with one of the most ludicrous alcohol ads of 2024, bending England’s national football folklore into a commercial goal.
Sports watching is an alcohol marketing dream. The phases of boredom, anxiety, depression, frustration, sociability and euphoria it induces are all powerful cues for alcohol drinking. It may even help train us to feel we need alcohol to cope with emotions at other times.
Not walking alone
This is, of course, not the only alcohol ad doing the rounds during Euro 2023. TV viewers young and old are continually persuaded in any number of cunning ways to believe a few beers are an essential accessory to proper football viewing.
The alcohol industry boilerplate counter-message “drinking responsibly” does not stop the constant association building. And the example set by “real fans” at the matches does not help either, with some so assured of beer’s pivotal role in the football story they launch half-full beer cups at the players.
Euro 2024 is a beer industry bonanza, like all football tournaments. Advertising is a way of capitalising on the enormous buzz of activity around it, fuelling demand from existing beer drinkers and imprinting on new potential customers, like children and young people.
The idea alcohol companies might now or ever curtail their ads voluntarily is laughable. Alcohol companies are obliged to do what is allowed to enrich shareholders. The only way to curb a vector of incentivised harm is to have effective ad regulations. These are currently absent in most countries.
And ad regulation needs to cover alcohol-free brews which share their brand with an alcoholic beer. These are widely used to crowbar alcohol brands into sports coverage, like the upcoming Olympics. The subterfuge is obvious given the tiny share of alcohol-free sales.
Individual approach
No one of us is able to make these legal changes, which will take time. So all we can do in the meantime is protect ourselves and those around us as best we can.
One way is to avoid being in alcohol soaked environments including our homes. Alcohol is simply not an essential part of playing sport, nor an essential part of watching it either. Alcohol, of course, played no part in Geoff Hurst’s hat trick of goals in 1966. There would have been no beer ads for TV viewers and lager would have been, perhaps, 1% of the beer market.
We might remind ourselves that one of the greatest players of the same era, Sir Stanley Matthews (pictured), didn’t drink. Meanwhile a crop of football stars including France’s Kylian Mbappé oppose alcohol promotions. Opting out is not easy and not currently possible if someone does not offer a religious reason, even though there are plenty of secular reasons.
We might also remind ourselves that alcohol blighted the lives of many of the best football players, like Diego Maradona, George Best and Paul Gascoigne, to name just three known to this very occasional football viewer. Did people watching the 1966 England match need beer to appreciate it. Would that not have dulled the experience rather than enhance it.
We might also imagine that avoiding alcohol when watching football might be positive training for us. We can use it as a way to learn to ride a roller coaster of emotions without turning to alcohol to cope. Or we can at least see it as a way of reducing the risk of developing this common problem.
And finally, perhaps, we might ask ourselves something: If we are unable to enjoy watching football without consuming alcohol then maybe we do not like the game? ■
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