I Drink 750ml Red Wine Every Night

ironman wrote:

Well done you are ahead of your time,in the last week research has proved drinking RED Wine stops the ageing process in humans this is conclusive not theory,look at the Medditeranean countrys Red with every meal and they have the best health in the world, so keep drinking I am already there

"aging"

"Mediterranean"

"countries"

I think the odds are about 99% that you are an alcoholic. As someone else mentioned, you should test yourself by abruptly stopping all alcohol for a month. Can you do it?

OTOH, there's plenty of people in this world that drink a bottle of wine per day. This is not the healthiest thing to do, but not suicidal either, particularly if you are a runner.

Agreed, you are what is known as a functioning alcoholic. You're not getting "wasted," it's not affecting work or relationships to a terrible degree, but . . . you probably have a dependency on alcohol. As has already been suggested, see if you can give it up for a while; just try one night. If you can't get through one night, you should seek help. I didn't notice if you stated how long you've been drinking a bottle a night, but it may have detrimental affects on your life and health eventually.

I'd like to thank everyone for the serious, intelligent replies. I'll try to respond to a few things: (And I don't want to try to justify etc. I'm very serious about this question and curious about my behaviour.)

"Every Night" should read "Most Nights" because some nights I am at work, so no wine then. On those nights I never feel like I am missing it in a big way.

I never feel like wine before 6pm on most days.

I never feel like I want/need more than a bottle. (Ooops, that comment may draw a lot of derishion!?)

Yes I often drink alone, because I do many things alone: reading, film, internet.

I'm late 40s. I began drinking wine regularly in early 40s.

I'll try to look at some more posts now. Thank you letsrunners for these responses so far.

Nut Doctor wrote:

I think the odds are about 99% that you are an alcoholic. As someone else mentioned, you should test yourself by abruptly stopping all alcohol for a month. Can you do it?

That would really piss me off, just as missing coffee every morning would, or missing running. I feel like I'm very set in my ways.

i kinda like running wrote:

Honestly, Man (I assume you're a dude), I think that's too much. Of course it varies from person to person but just think about what you're saying for a minute. An entire bottle of wine every night.....every....night. People can take almost any bad habit and think of a dozen ways to justify the behavior because, well, you really want to keep doing it. According to your testimony you don't get really drunk and it doesn't affect your life adversely. Maybe so, but I'd be willing to bet you aren't being entirely honest with yourself about this because you don't want to quit doing it. And I'll bet the only reason you started this thread was to get support for your habit. You'll ignore the posts like this one and focus instead on the posts supporting your behavior.

Honestly I'm very interested in considering / weighing posts like yours. Thank you.

A bottle of wine is not that bad for you. There are lots of other things that you could be doing that would be far worse. That said, this is clearly a bad habit. There is no question that you would be healthier if you drank less. How much does it affect your running? Possibly significantly, possibly very slightly; what's almost certain is that it isn't helping.

I've gone through periods where I've consumed similar amounts of alcohol to what you're drinking, and I agree that I generally feel OK while I'm doing it. I also go through periods where I don't drink at all, and I'm pretty sure I feel better during these times. Also, the decision not to drink tends to be part of a general commitment to being healthier, which is definitely good for my running.

We can argue endlessly about how bad it really is to drink a bottle of wine every night, but I think we can agree on this: it's not a good habit. There are better and healthier ways to spend your evenings.

Wino? wrote:

Nut Doctor wrote:

I think the odds are about 99% that you are an alcoholic. As someone else mentioned, you should test yourself by abruptly stopping all alcohol for a month. Can you do it?

That would really piss me off, just as missing coffee every morning would, or missing running. I feel like I'm very set in my ways.

Try it anyway. You will learn a lot about whether it is too much or how much it is affecting you. You may think it is not affecting you, but when you stop for a month you will see subtle differences. Alcohol affects you for 3-4 days on a subtle level, so just try it and see for yourself. If you were drinking 6 cups of coffee every morning I would suggest doing the same thing.

moons over my hammy wrote:

Try it anyway. You will learn a lot about whether it is too much or how much it is affecting you. You may think it is not affecting you, but when you stop for a month you will see subtle differences. Alcohol affects you for 3-4 days on a subtle level, so just try it and see for yourself. If you were drinking 6 cups of coffee every morning I would suggest doing the same thing.

I do drink a lot of coffee every morning, and sometimes I have ice cream after dinner. I accept that these are not "good" habits. Perhaps I eat too much bread also.

I'm not trying to justify 750ml most days. But I'm no angel in other areas. I only sleep 4-5hrs a night too. So yes indeed, I have a few habits that are not "good" habits.

At what point would everyone say "it's perfectly OK"? 500ml daily? 250ml?

I think, in my life, I am ok with drinking a whole bottle by myself probably more often than I should b/c I have no other vices in my life, and really no other bad habits other than forgetting to recycle every now and then. I think you have to take into account ALL the bad things in your life and see how they all affect you, especially combined. I drink like a good german catholic girl has been raised to, but I also get 8 hours + sleep a night, I don't smoke, I don't eat junk food/fried food/go out to eat all the time, I don't do caffiene, sleeping pills, creatine, soda, so to me, I think it's ok to have one unhealthy release/vice.

Wino? wrote:[

I'm not trying to justify 750ml most days. But I'm no angel in other areas. I only sleep 4-5hrs a night too. So yes indeed, I have a few habits that are not "good" habits.

At what point would everyone say "it's perfectly OK"? 500ml daily? 250ml?

I'd say the point would be when you are not talking about your alcohol consumption on letsrun.com or asking if people think it's to much.

moons over my hammy wrote:

I'd say the point would be when you are not talking about your alcohol consumption on letsrun.com or asking if people think it's to much.

I think you've made a very good point. ie If I'm concerned enough to do this, then it IS a problem?

But (damn, I hate buts), don't people make threads about too much bread? Too much gatorade? Too much anaerobic work?

If I am concerned enough to make this thread and ask these questions, is that automatically a real problem?

moons over my hammy wrote:

or asking if people think it's to much.

"too"

Here's some help on the difference between "to" and "too".

teacher, go away.to wino, i would be a little concerned--this is coming from a recovering alcoholic. hell, i was drinking 16-25 beers a night and feeling ok for work the next day. i never touched a beer until five. i was very well versed in lying, and convincing myself that it was ok because of this and that. i'm not saying you have a problem, but it's something to be considered. i was drinking heavily, and regularly, for ten years and never lost a job or a girlfriend, and ran a 2:44 marathon (my pr) in the process, the morning after smoking 10 cigs and drinking at least a bottle of wine. it's not a path i would suggest. just think about it. it encourages me that you're in your forties, while i was in my teens when i started.feel free to contact me.

The Teacher wrote:

moons over my hammy wrote:

or asking if people think it's to much.

"too"

Here's some help on the difference between "to" and "too".

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/to.html

Wino? wrote:

moons over my hammy wrote:

I'd say the point would be when you are not talking about your alcohol consumption on letsrun.com or asking if people think it's to much.

I think you've made a very good point. ie If I'm concerned enough to do this, then it IS a problem?

But (damn, I hate buts), don't people make threads about too much bread? Too much gatorade? Too much anaerobic work?

If I am concerned enough to make this thread and ask these questions, is that automatically a real problem?

Just out of curiosity, what do average spending on a bottle of red wine? I don't know if you're drinking too much or not, but if you're dropping 15-20 clams a bottle, that is an expensive habit. But, you're also in your late 40s so that may be nothing to you.

Thanks for the continued serious responses.

As for $, I've done that math, and we are looking at about $3G a year. (I like somewhat cheap stuff.) Or maybe $8 a day. These numbers do not bother me. I feel that it is a fair price to pay! (It is less than 5% annual income.)

The paragraph above.....is that an alcoholic justifying things? I honestly don't know. This never bothered me until people close to me expressed shock.

Anyway.....I couldn't drink early in the day. I cringe at the tought of morning drinks.

But don't most (all?) alcoholics want it most anytime?

I haven't had wine yet today. I'm not craving it. I merely enjoy it a hell of a lot.

Anyway I just want to write my honest thoughts and perhaps you will be kind enough to continue your comments.

Thank you.

I've gone through phases when I've consumed a bottle each night. It is usually over a few hours and accompanied by a lot of water. It has never involved getting drunk or any other negative side effects. I have also done this while running every day for months at a time, 75-95 mpw, and running marathons in the 2:34-2:40 range. From a lifestyle side, it probably would be better to consume half a bottle per night. From a running standpoint, it would also probably be better to consume half a bottle per night. While I think there are many worse things in the world, my experience is that 2 glasses per night is better than 4. While the cut it out entirely experiment might also be helpful, why not try just stopping at 2 glasses. Red wine is a "cozy" drink (sorry, it was the best word I could come up with) so perhaps try a glass of pomegranite juice, cranberry juice, or something similar.

I think that there is a lot of reason for concern. Even if you aren't an alcoholic, you are drinking at a rate that is almost certainly detrimental to your health.

The existing research suggests that drinking 1-2 drinks a day is better for your health than abstaining. However, for every drink beyond 2, the health risks increase substantially. By 3 drinks, you probably worse off than abstainers. It is my understanding that by 5 or 6 drinks per day (where you are), there is a very substantial correlation negative health outcomes.

It sounds like you have been able maintain normalcy at your current level of consumption, but you may be an alcoholic (I think that you are). Even if you aren't an alcoholic, you are almost certainly heading towards a premature death. If you think that's a worthwhile trade-off and if your habit doesn't worsen (both big ifs), then by all means continue. But at the very least, you should be aware that you are losing years off of your life expectancy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_effects_of_alcohol#Quantity_recommended

Actually thats rubbish you have not read new research properly,anyway many people have died in nightclubs from over consumption of WATER, on a more positive side Antonio Pinto the Potugese marathon runner drank two bottles of green wine from his own vineyard even the night before major marathons,lighten up, everybody sees it a diferent way