Two experts on the phenomenon of Dry January
After a December in which you may have gone quite overboard when it comes to eating and drinking, are you currently taking part in the Dry January movement? Giving up wine for a month, as well as cocktails, and not letting any beers into the house either? Then you’re certainly not the only one. But these two experts have the following to say about it…
Because although we try to convince ourselves otherwise, no one can really deny the science explaining that alcohol is genuinely bad for you. Erik Scherder, neuropsychologist and professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is so emphatic about this that he says: “If alcohol were invented now, it would be banned immediately.”
Justifying it
That is what can be read on the news platform Nu.nl. In an article about Dry January and people’s attempt to go an entire month without drinking a drop, both Scherder and Jacqueline van Lieshout have their say. Van Lieshout used to be a heavy ‘social’ drinker; she says she could always justify it to herself because she didn’t drink four days a week. But on the other three evenings, she says, she really let loose. She stopped drinking alcohol from one day to the next, wrote books about it and founded the Ontwijnen platform.
Largely unknown
These two experts have mixed feelings about the Dry January phenomenon. According to Scherder, you can see it as an experiment, but of course it would be better if people did not find it too difficult to manage not drinking for a month. He says that, for example, it is still relatively unknown among women that one glass of wine a day already increases the risk of breast cancer, in addition to the risk of cancer of the mouth, oesophagus and stomach.
In denial
According to Van Lieshout, many people (at least those around her) use Dry January as an excuse month. An excuse for the other eleven months, that is. As if they can stop drinking alcohol at any moment, because look: ‘Dry January worked, so I’m not addicted.’ But according to her, that is merely a story people tell themselves, and it would be better if they critically examined the role alcohol plays in their lives. Not just in January, then, because “if you need a month of not drinking to soothe your conscience, then something really is going on.”
Visit Nu.nl to read the full article. Still need tips for an alcohol-free drinks gathering? Then check out this alcohol-free gin and tonic test.
Read also:
- Is alcohol-free wine really wine? And does it taste good?
- Consumers’ Association Guide: the information on alcohol labels should be much more transparent
- The Netherlands’ first alcohol-free liquor store is located in Haarlem
Source: Nu.nl
