My diet is very well-controlled. I fast for 20 hours every day and have a perfectly balanced intake. But if I drink alcohol I will sleep badly and I will have a bad day tomorrow. Why do people refuse to believe this?
This comment thread just reinforces your argument (my belief as well) that people will go out of their way to try and normalize drinking, just like smoking used to be in the 60s.
I get constant questions as well unless I'm babying a random non-alcoholic beverage. I've found that the best non-follow up to "why don't you drink?" is "I used to drink a lot but my doctor told me to try and abstain for my health."
No, the issue is simply that the alcohol intake he describes should not have that big of an impact.
A few pints of beer or some wine with dinner should not completely wreck the day after, unless there is some medical condition that is worsening the effect.
Personally, I don't care of people drink or not, that's their choice. What I'm saying is that his intake was probably heavier than he claims, which would certainly account for his marked improvement in health when he cut out alcohol completely.
My intake was not heavier than I claimed. If you read my post again you'll see that I went for complete abstinence only after drinking became an occasional thing for me. When you drink a few pints of beer once after a month or more of no drinking it has a massive effect.
People disputing this have probably never gone more than a week without alcohol. I'm not prepared to maintain a tolerance to alcohol and it makes me feel bad when I drink occasionally.
All I'm claiming is that a literal poison has a negative effect on me that far outweighs any positive I get from the enjoyment of drinking. Yet people are jumping up in arms saying there must be something wrong with me because they drink regularly and feel fine. I think people could do with some careful introspection and maybe to reconsider what "fine" is.
I occasionally go a month or two without touching alcohol (an appropriate occasion simply doesn't come up for a while), and I simply can't recognize what you say about reduced tolerance and feeling better after a period of abstinence. I simply feel the same as always.
What you seem to be claiming is that we (who enjoy alcohol in moderation and on occasion) are lying to ourselves about how we feel.
