Non-alcoholic wines/beers

[Anne_Onymous]

Hello all,


I was wondering what your thoughts are on non-alcoholic wines or beers. Good idea or bad? Too much like the real thing or just as harmless as a soda?

Curious,

Anne

[angussdundee]

When they say nonalcoholic they imply 'zero' alcohol content, right? WRONG! In fact it uusually means no more that 0.5 percent.
Now that might not seem like much to you but I can guarantee it's enough to trigger a craving...remember, the first one does the damage routine? Even if they are genuinely 'alcohol free' it's still enough to stimulate the psychological feeling of drinking or of being part of the drinking scene. I say avoid them, especially if your in early recovery. Far better going to meeting where you can enjoy yourself with like minded people during early recovery. We must never harbor the notion that we might be able to drink like Ladies or Gentleman, even if it does say 'alcohol free' on the label.
thats just my ha'penny worth on the subject.

Anguss.

[blossom]

Hi Anne,

For me i have never drunk non aloholic wine or beer, for the same reasons that Angus posted. I don't want to take the risk of triggering off the craving for alcohol (physically or mentally), i once heard someone share who had 14 years of sobriety how they drank again after starting to drink the cans of pop shandy. But also the other reason i tend not to bother as well is because i always drank alcohol for the effect it had on me, never really the taste. I actually quite hated the taste of alcohol, but loved what it did for me. That tends to be the nature of my alcoholism, so there would be no point for me to drink it with no effect. I would suggest as well to maybe stay clear of it, but maybe ask yourself why you would want to drink non alcoholic wine/beer, sometimes when i ask myself about my motives they can be quite revealing..just a thought :)

Love
Blossom x

[samf]

Yah...know there is a percentage of alcohol them...don't need to be triggering the physical craving...I would be off and running.

Also I drank for effect...that sense of ease...can't imagine myself really just sticking with that stuff, anyway.

And I liked the taste. Too many memories for me...it would send me back to the bottle, I think...just the taste or smell.

Sam

[Anne_Onymous]

Thanks for the suggestions/ideas ... especially the bit about considering what my motives might be for drinking a non-alc beverage. I'm still very early in my recovery and hadn't thought much about the psychologic triggers & all that goes along w/ the disease. Sounds like for me it would be best to forget about iusing a substitute & keep reading, or take a walk, or call someone from meeting - or clean my house, ugh.

Thanks again all,

Anne

[sioux]

Yes, the alcohol content thing as mentioned.

Even if there were NO alcohol, and I were to drink these things, my night would go like this....at 11:00 in a bar, after my 18th non-alcoholic thing that tastes like the real thing, I'd order the real thing, and then I'd order more of the real thing to catch up. That's cause I am a sick alkie, and that's the way I operate when I entertain my illness.

In my opinion, and I try not to enjoy them too much, fat-free sour cream is the worse product known to mankind. When I gave up fats, I thought, wow, fat-free sour cream and cheese....they suck so out-loud that I have decided life will be entirely well lived with joy and direction without them entirely! I feel that way about booze too. 8)