I rarely drink anymore yet I’m very social and am out quite a bit and do some entertaining at home. My brother is an alcoholic and it has caused so many problems for our family. Dealing with his issues has sort of caused me to lose my desire to drink. I’m often the designated driver. Happy to do so!
4 Likes
I believe the rise in use of weight loss drugs like Semaglutides has a positive effect on addiction and people on them are drinking much less. And LOADS of people are taking these drugs.
6 Likes
I find this interesting given the increase in the number of cocktail type bars and speakeasies that seem to be popping up all over our area. I will say that the offerings of, “mock tails,” seems to be more robust these days - but these are also pretty spendy.
I am a drinker, but I have done Dry January for the last 3-4 years. It’s a great reset for me after the holidays. I find I also eat better when I am not drinking alcohol.
Biggest drinkers I’ve known recently were a run/tri group we were in in Florida. Mostly folks in the 50-70 age range. Unbelievable athletes - Ironman participants. Man, those folks drank like fish.
6 Likes
I would never spend bucks on a mocktail. What’s the point in that?
6 Likes
I’m only speculating, but so it’s less obvious that you aren’t drinking?? More festive looking than a club soda? Cuter glass than a club soda is served in? Garnished? 
1 Like
You can always ask for a glass of water with a lime or lemon and I’ve seen it given that way.
Interesting article. The amount i drink at home is minimal–like 2 glasses of wine once a week. I do consistenly go out twice a week (beer garden after playing soccer midweek and neighborhood Mexican place on Sunday). On those occasions, I always have at least 2 and usually 3 drinks. I think folks should do what works for them with no judgement on others choices.
5 Likes
I guess I don’t care what people think about my not drinking. I’m too cheap to spend money trying to fit in. And like others have said, I’d rather spend my calories on desserts than drinks.
5 Likes
Alcoholic beverages never appealed to me:
- Do not want to under the influence or drunk.
- Do not want the negative health effects.
- Do not want to spend the money.
- Do not like the taste.
4 Likes
I’m sipping an espresso martini right now. Soccer son is home from school and we’re watching hockey.
5 Likes
True for me, using another GLP-1 drug. In the past, habitually a glass or two of wine most nights. Never more. I liked the taste, mouth feel, generally the routine, but it’s increasingly clear that it’s not healthy. If there was decent affordable non- alcoholic wine I’d be fine with that as not looking for the buzz.
But since starting Zepbound three months ago, I have zero interest. Nice side effect!
4 Likes
Neither my husband nor my daughter drink but son-in-law and I do. So he gets a beer and I get a glass of wine, my husband will get a sparkling water and nobody cares. My daughter will sometimes order a mocktail, not because she wants to look like she’s drinking but because she thinks it will taste good. Last time we we were out she ordered a lavender something without the alcohol. When the water brought it he said, “here’s your lavender something without the funny stuff.”
6 Likes
Not a scientific study, but I’ve been hearing more and more instances of people turning to edibles (and THC-infused drinkables) in lieu of alcohol.
Like others in this thread, I don’t want to drink my calories so I may have a couple of low carb beers/wk just to have something other than water (I don’t drink soda or tea). I don’t like the White Claw/Truly group of seltzers but if I’m out on the lake on a summer day, I may have a High Noon or two.
My oldest did a “sober summer” challenge this year and has since reduced her overall alcohol intake. She has found some non-alcoholic beer brands and mocktail brands that she drinks instead but she will still have an occasional glass of wine.
I’ve never been in a situation as an adult where anyone cared or commented on whether or not someone ordered an alcoholic drink.
4 Likes
My husband and I are examples of this article, we’ve gone from a glass of wine most nights to one or two on weekends only in the last 5 years or so.
I do enjoy a glass of wine though or a beer on a hot summer evening. I have no issue with people who don’t drink as long as they’re not preaching to me about ingesting poison while they enjoy a meal of ultra processed food.
5 Likes
Many mocktails are at least as troublesome to prepare as cocktails. Making special flavored bitters, adding smoke to the process, using unusual fruits and many of the non-acolholic herb mixtures (Seedlip for example) are just as pricey as the rum or bourbon they are replacing.
4 Likes
Marijuana is being used a lot up here now that it’s legal. There’s a dispensary every 50 feet, it seems. When we drive through small towns on the way to our camp, the number of dispensaries is scary. 
2 Likes
I have never had a taste for alcohol, despite growing up in a VERY ethnic Italian family. Our extended family would have wine with dinner, but we never did. Even in college, it only took me one time of puking to realize I’m a lightweight and it was okay.
Even now, the idea of mixed drinks is intriguing but every time I’ve had one I’ve hated it lol. I’ll have a mocktail now and again. Can’t stand beer or wine. So, I just have a soda or water if I’m out (which isn’t often). Even for my daughter’s upcoming wedding, she herself is having non-alcoholic beer but we are providing limited beer and wine at the bar. My feeling is if someone can’t have fun at her wedding without hard liquor, that’s on them.
I’m one of those people who don’t drink, smoke or tan - and it’s coming in handy as I head into my 60s and don’t look it 
12 Likes
I hardly ever drink since my best friend from college died about 8 years ago from alcoholism and drug addiction. I just don’t have it in me anymore. Every time I have a cocktail, I think of her and I really really miss her. When I do drink on occasion, it’s more out a sense of obligation. And I don’t enjoy it. I don’t give a flying fart if somebody I encounter IRL gets offended like that or if they think that by my not drinking, it means that I don’t care about them.
What’s the most valuable thing we have in life to spend? Our time. If I’m spending time with you to sit down together for a meal, you’re important to me. And booze doesn’t make a difference.
10 Likes
The only people who ever questioned my relative lack of drinking was my family (birth family). For whatever reasons I never was a big drinker, I never was one of those guys where guzzling a 6 pack was something to do and the like, it just was no big deal. I used to make beer at one point but it was more for the fun of it, didn’t really drink it, gave a lot away. My wife and I (we have been together many, many decades now) were never big drinkers, she used to laugh we talked about it more than did it, could that be considered a problem? Most of it would be occassionally a glass of wine with dinner or for me a glass of beer.
I have a couple of friends who have had problems with alcohol, and when we have gone out they asked me if I wasn’t drinking because I was with them, and I honestly could say no, it just isn’t my default mode, not by a long shot.
I suspect that drinking today is a lot less then it was when I was growing up or even when I first started working. In my family of origin drinking was a big thing, and outside myself the next generation did too…but that was the times. I remember meeting my dad when he was working for lunch (I was working nights at the time), and being amazed what he and his friends would have with lunch, like 2 mugs of beer (not critical of it; just that if I did that, I would go to sleep!). When I started working people would go out at lunch and drink, but that kind of tapered off as time went on, it was discouraged too, I think coming back from a 3 martini lunch (or the equivalent) wouldn’t go over well. I have heard that younger people are not drinking as much (though that is usually then followed by a report on binge drinking),I wonder if pot has something to do with that? I have also read that older people, 50+, actually show increased drinking, but again seems to be one thing contradicts another. I know as I have gotten older that I don’t want anything more than maybe a drink, once ina whille I’ll drink a bit of bourbon (prob not even an ounce) mixed with diet soda or something, and that is it.
I don’t necessarily agree with the people who say no amount of alchohol is safe, coming from a european background where wine was common, even in the so called blue zones (where life expectancy has been long), moderate drinking doesn’t seem to be that toxic. Also given the amounts, when they drink a glass of wine with dinner it is like half the glass and the glass is small.
2 Likes