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Rejigging our alcohol consumption can help adapt to our current situation and prepare for the challenges ahead.

The easing of lockdowns is not the end or the beginning of the end. It is just, perhaps, the end of the beginning. 

The UK still faces the deepest depression for perhaps 300 years, according to the Bank of England.

The political futures currently proposed by the UK and elsewhere are far from certain to improve the outlook.

We can only respond to world events such as these as best we can, trying to minimise damage and hasten recovery.

We need to brace for lower income, unemployment, curtailed freedoms and thousands of premature deaths.

One way to be ready as we can be for hard times is to adopt healthy, cost-saving choices early, including low-risk drinking.

This simple suggestion is strongly advocated by the WHO, though precious few governments have given it airtime.

Alcohol use weakens our immune system and judgement, and our capacity to cope with emotional challenges.

We can use the tranquility many of us now have in abundance to do this. There may be other times for it, but not better ones.

We are now free of one enormous challenge faced by people trying to cut down drinking: social pressure.

The UK’s low-risk consistently drinking under 14 UK units (140ml) a week of alcohol is a reasonable target. 

Achieving this can help improve our better mental and physical health while slashing costs ahead of a downturn.

We can get help from our GP and from a wide range of organisations set up to support and assist.

Good news is set to be short supply. But, in its absence, we can at least celebrate and take the chance to act on good ideas. ■

One in 25 cancers is linked to alcohol consumption, with men accounting for three quarters of cases, according to a global study in Lancet Oncology.

“Public health strategies, such as reduced alcohol availability, labelling alcohol products with a health warning, and marketing bans could reduce rates of alcohol-driven cancer,” says Harriet Rumgay of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, also recommending higher taxes and minimum pricing.

The estimates would mean 740,000 cancer cases globally were linked to alcohol last year, with heavy drinkers contributing bar far the most. But there is no risk-free level of alcohol drinking and cancer. Low-level drinkers were one-in-seven of alcohol-linked cancer cases.

“It is safest not to drink alcohol, but if you do, you should stick to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk guidelines which is to drink no more than 14 units a week [or 140ml of alcohol] on a regular basis,” said Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the UK’s Alcohol Health Alliance.

Cancers of the oesophagus, liver, and breast accounted for most of the cases. Alcohol damages DNA and affects hormone production, which can contribute to cancer development, as well as worsen the cancer-causing effects of substances like tobacco.

In the UK the alcohol-lined cancer rate was the global average of 4%, with 16,800 cases; The US, 3%, with 52,700 cases; China 6%, 282,300; Germany 4%, 21,500 cases; and France 5%, 20,000 cases. The percentage of alcohol-linked cancer cases were reckoned to be highest in Mongolia, at 10%, from 560 cases, and lowest in Kuwait, where it was 0%, with just a few cases.

The study made its estimate by looking at alcohol intake in 2010 and the number of cases of cancers known to be linked to alcohol last year. Some suspect the research may underestimate alcohol’s contribution to cancer cases, because a quarter of alcohol purchases are not captured by government figures. ■

Western culture makes a fetish of strenuous effort. Put in lots of effort, we are told, and we can reliably expect cracking results. I, like a lot of people, was brought up to believe it. Media reinforce the idea. But it is not true.

Many of us often work extremely hard and get very limited results in return. What we invariably get, however, is fatigue. Over the long term we often get chronic fatigue. We also increase our chances of injury and becoming jaded.

We also boost the chances we crave relief from the pain and strain we have induced. Enthusiastic efforts to improve our health can lead us to look for relief using alcohol or in other counterproductive ways.

I was brought up to be a firm believer in the try hard ethos. Whether it was memorising irregular foreign verbs or running round a playing field until we puked. It was all quite unpleasant, but rest assured the pain would have a pay off.

There is something to be said for seeing where our limits are and experiencing what happens when we reach them. It is instructive, but constantly pushing our gauges into the red is a flawed long-term strategy.

Real achievements typically emerge from steady, sustainable and enjoyable effort. Bodies strengthen, but they take time. Books, academic papers and brick walls take shape, but not thanks to an afternoon of frantic exertion.

Willing ourselves to regularly hit our pain thresholds can induce endorphins that soothe strain and stress. But over the long term this can backfire when we no longer want to endure discomfort simply for a painkilling payoff.

My own experience was that I became tired of the satisfaction and reward of enduring things as an end in itself. Eventually I found what Chinese philosophy calls wu wei, a slippery idea one might say means “never pushing”.

The idea is to never strain oneself. One should look at ways to sail rather than row to a destination. Rather than giving oneself a pat on the back for labouring, one should focus on technique, reducing effort and enhancing enjoyment.

It is an approach that can be well embodied in some tai chi classes. If you feel any pain or strain you are told to stop moving quite so much. The lesson for an inveterate try-harder is stop trying so hard, progress will come anyway.

I did no more than the tai chi basics, but “never pushing” works with anything. I swam this way for three years. I was never injured, tired or stressed and was able to enjoy every minute. I emerged far stronger and with technique improved. 

The ultra low intensity meant there was no pain or discomfort during or after. This meant there was not the slightest temptation to self-medicate with alcohol or anything else. Swimming itself became a longed-for stress relief.

Making never pushing and enjoyment the key parameters of success make activities themselves the rewarding relaxation it should be.  Well-being not effort is the most reliable basis for progress. ■

The wisdom of making Euro 2024 a beer marketing bonanza should surely be questioned when alcohol deaths are still 30% above pre-pandemic levels in the UK and elsewhere.

Imagine a national football hero wreathed in heavenly light, carrying a holy relic to bless long ranks of beer cans as they emerge from a production line. “Bring it home!” our hero commands as the cans wheel past in obedient legions. 

The message is clear for anybody witnessing this unlikely tableau. Any true admirer of this man and supporter of the national team with which he played must procure some of these magical cans and imbibe their contents.

It is satire gone too far, surely? It would require a world in which quasi-religious imagery was used to manipulate people into consuming a health-harming psychoactive product while watching sportspeople in their prime.

Well, absurd yes, but it is 2024 when the bedrock of satire is what underpins reality. This is the storyline of the all-too-real Budweiser ad for Euro 2024 featuring Geoff Hurst, sole survivor of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team.

England may not get far in the tournament, but they can come home safe in the knowledge they are forever a team with one of the most ludicrous alcohol ads of 2024, bending England’s national football folklore into a commercial goal.

Sports watching is an alcohol marketing dream. The phases of boredom, anxiety, depression, frustration, sociability and euphoria it induces are all powerful cues for alcohol drinking. It may even help train us to feel we need alcohol to cope with emotions at other times.

Not walking alone
This is, of course, not the only alcohol ad doing the rounds during Euro 2023. TV viewers young and old are continually persuaded in any number of cunning ways to believe a few beers are an essential accessory to proper football viewing.

The alcohol industry boilerplate counter-message “drinking responsibly” does not stop the constant association building. And the example set by “real fans” at the matches does not help either, with some so assured of beer’s pivotal role in the football story they launch half-full beer cups at the players.

Euro 2024 is a beer industry bonanza, like all football tournaments. Advertising is a way of capitalising on the enormous buzz of activity around it, fuelling demand from existing beer drinkers and imprinting on new potential customers, like children and young people.

The idea alcohol companies might now or ever curtail their ads voluntarily is laughable. Alcohol companies are obliged to do what is allowed to enrich shareholders. The only way to curb a vector of incentivised harm is to have effective ad regulations. These are currently absent in most countries.

And ad regulation needs to cover alcohol-free brews which share their brand with an alcoholic beer. These are widely used to crowbar alcohol brands into sports coverage, like the upcoming Olympics. The subterfuge is obvious given the tiny share of alcohol-free sales.

Individual approach
No one of us is able to make these legal changes, which will take time. So all we can do in the meantime is protect ourselves and those around us as best we can. 

One way is to avoid being in alcohol soaked environments including our homes. Alcohol is simply not an essential part of playing sport, nor an essential part of watching it either. Alcohol, of course, played no part in Geoff Hurst’s hat trick of goals in 1966. There would have been no beer ads for TV viewers and lager would have been, perhaps, 1% of the beer market.

We might remind ourselves that one of the greatest players of the same era, Sir Stanley Matthews (pictured), didn’t drink. Meanwhile a crop of football stars including France’s Kylian Mbappé oppose alcohol promotions. Opting out is not easy and not currently possible if someone does not offer a religious reason, even though there are plenty of secular reasons.

We might also remind ourselves that alcohol blighted the lives of many of the best football players, like Diego Maradona, George Best and Paul Gascoigne, to name just three known to this very occasional football viewer. Did people watching the 1966 England match need beer to appreciate it. Would that not have dulled the experience rather than enhance it. 

We might also imagine that avoiding alcohol when watching football might be positive training for us. We can use it as a way to learn to ride a roller coaster of emotions without turning to alcohol to cope. Or we can at least see it as a way of reducing the risk of developing this common problem. 

And finally, perhaps, we might ask ourselves something: If we are unable to enjoy watching football without consuming alcohol then maybe we do not like the game? ■ 
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