Making New Year’s resolutions is a treasured pastime for many. Eating healthier and exercising regularly often top the to-do list of resolution makers. However, a new trend is emerging that doesn’t require you to forgo cheeseburgers and French fries or lace up your favorite sneakers and head to the gym. To participate in the Dry January challenge, you simply need to abstain from alcoholic beverages for one month.
Some people try this trend in an effort to drink less the entire year. According to Self magazine, others ditch alcohol in January to “detox” from too much drinking over the holidays. Regardless of your reason for going dry, you might reap some important benefits.
The Dry January campaign began in England in 2013 according to ABC News. It’s now making its way across this side of the pond. New Zealand and Australia have also participated in the phenomenon. While limited research exists regarding the effects of quitting alcohol for a month on your body, a few studies have revealed both physical and mental health benefits.
In 2013, 14 staff members employed by New Scientist magazine worked with researchers at the University College London Medical School’s Institute for Liver and Digestive Health to investigate the advantages of forgoing alcohol in January. All of the participants considered themselves to be “normal” drinkers. At the beginning of the experiment, they submitted to baseline testing utilizing questionnaires, blood samples, and liver ultrasound scans. Over the next five weeks, four of the participants drank their normal amounts of alcohol while the other ten gave it up altogether.
At the end of the study, those who quit drinking had diminished levels of liver fat, which can proceed liver damage, lower cholesterol levels, and improved blood sugar levels. They also noted experiencing better sleep and concentration. The four people who kept drinking realized no benefits.
2015 Dry January participants in the United Kingdom also reported numerous other benefits as reported by the University of Sussex. Sixty-two percent of them had improved energy while 49 percent of participants shed some pounds. Eighty-two percent of them felt a sense of achievement while 79 percent of those who took part in the study reported money savings. Going dry for January might also help some individuals jump-start their efforts to give up alcohol for longer durations. Although most people who try the Dry January challenge end up returning to drinking, as many as eight percent of them remain dry six months later as reported by Public Health England and the British Medical Journal.
People who do start drinking again consume less. A research study completed in the United Kingdom and published in the journal Health Psychology in 2015 discovered that those who took part in Dry January drank alcohol less often, consumed fewer drinks when they did indulge, and became intoxicated less often six months after they finished the Dry January initiative. Participants in the Dry January challenge were also more adept at refusing alcoholic beverages. Interestingly, these benefits were realized in people who didn’t even abstain from drinking alcohol for the whole month of January.
The longer you can keep from consuming alcoholic drinks, the better. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, around 88,000 people perish due to alcohol-related issues each year. Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of death in America. Over time, excessive alcohol consumption can contribute to a host of both mental and physical health problems including high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, digestive ailments, liver disease, throat, mouth, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast cancer, dementia, depression, and anxiety according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.
The CDC classifies excessive drinking as either heavy or binge drinking. For women, heavy drinking is characterized by consuming eight or more alcoholic drinks per week while binge drinking is labeled as consuming four or more alcoholic beverages during a single occasion. For men, heavy drinking is defined as consuming 15 or more alcoholic beverages each week while binge drinking is labeled as downing five or more alcoholic drinks during a single sit-down.
For some people, not drinking alcohol for an entire month may seem like an impossibility. Thankfully, you can do a few things to make the task easier. When dining out, request a table out of eyesight of the bar. You might even want to only eat at restaurants that don’t serve alcohol during the month of January. If you currently have alcohol in your home, consider getting rid of all of it.
Now is the perfect time to try some tantalizingly delicious mocktail recipes. For instance, Wide Open Eats recommends concocting refreshing drinks such as a raspberry fizz, a turmeric, ginger, and grapefruit mocktail, a five ingredient butterbeer, a mango mojito mocktail, and virgin sangrias. Let the guilt-free drinking begin!
