Are NA Beverages Healthier For You?!
photo by @jessdanielsphotography
I crack up about articles like this one in the NY Times, Is Non-Alcoholic Beer and Wine Healthier For You? What most of us read into that headline is, oh ok, there’s obviously a big question mark so they’re probably going to tell me that there are some additives or sugar or crazy things that make NA beverages just as unhealthy as alcohol, right?!
The big question that is hanging in the silence though is… “healthier than what?!”
For that reason an article like this can be so misleading and by the article’s end, I’m wondering what purpose it served.
It’s a bit like an article that pondered whether or not being around non-alcoholic beverages was a bad idea for teenagers because it would entice them to drink the real thing….as if our booze-obsessed culture and lax laws on advertising alcohol, and bragging about how much we drank in college and telling kids from the time they’re tiny “this is for adults only” or “Mommy’s juice,” doesn’t entice them and groom them already!!
The NY Times has a wine columnist and until very very recently, no one was ever asking, are all these bottles of wine healthy, or healthier than smoothies, coffee, hot chocolate, green tea, milk or water?
I feel amused when I see someone in the wine industry say that they want to caution people about “all that sugar” in some non-alcoholic wines.
Really?!
But the thing is, we’ve never known what was in wine because alcoholic beverages are the one consumer product that isn’t required by law to disclose its ingredients.
It does give you a tiny bit of pause when you order at Chipotle or Wendy’s when you can see right there on the menu the calories, right?
Imagine if your favorite bottle or box of wine had listed not only calories but sketchy sounding ingredients such as “mega-purple,” a colorant to make the wine appear more appealing.
Non-alcoholic beverages are governed by the Food & Drug Administration and must list ingredients, calories and nutritional information, but alcohol, governed by the US Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau, does not and the alcohol lobby is so strong, it has successfully fought to keep it this way for years.
For sure, keep an eye on sugar when consuming NA beverages or any beverage. But let’s just be real that we probably weren’t tracking that when we were drinking alcohol.
So the article forgets to consider what the alternative might have been. If you’re at a party, and you drink one and a half NA beers*, but that is instead of drinking multiple cocktails or glasses of wine, OR instead of what USED to be offered to non-drinkers such as a glass of gingerale…..yes, you’re coming out WAY ahead!
Most of my clients are drinking anywhere from one to four NA beverages per week instead of about 4 or more bottles of wine. It’s abundantly clear that is a huge health win. They are enjoying restored REM sleep cycles, improved hydration and immunity, reduced blood pressure and cholesterol, reduced anxiety and more.
And the benefit of having something in your hands and feeling included and part of the ritual and party?! Healthy and priceless!
*oh, and NA beer, wine and many alt beverages can be naturally loaded with essential minerals and electrolytes that hydrate us more efficiently than water alone, and polyphenols to reduce inflammation, and even probiotics to help the gut biome. Other NA beverages include relaxing herbs and even vitamins.