On alcohol 🥂

It seems everyone, myself included has largely cut alcohol out of their lives, and I can’t say I’m thrilled about the trend.

A few festive drinks with family and friends are a tradition as old as recorded history, when done correctly I think the martini can be worth the shake.

Here are some tips on how I drink or pretend to drink at social functions, take them with a grain of tequila salt:

• It’s never been easier to fake being drunk: Fake beers, wines and even botanical spritz’s like Casamara Club have been inserted discretely onto restaurant menus nationwide, I personally find drinking along with the gang does help me get in the holiday spirit. When that fails theres always the highball w/ soda ice and lime.

• Glycine improves ethanol metabolism in rats: Stock up on bone broth, this amino acid seems to make it easier for your body to metabolize ethanol: see study

• The Hawthorne effect: Much like a sleep tracker will inspire you to get better sleep, or a glucose monitor will keep you away from the dessert bar, it can be a good exercise to keep a breathalyzer at home and puff it before bed. You’ll get a feel for how much you’re actually consuming and be less likely to go off the deep end. Waking up Jan 1 and blowing a .15 is quite a reality check. (I used to use the BACtrack brand, sleep tracker is also a friend here)

• A futuristic probiotic for alcohol: I don’t drink much anymore so I haven’t tried it, but several friend I trust swear by ZBiotics. Digging into their “Science” page, it seems to be an off-the-shelf, non-gut colonizing bacteria that they’ve genetically altered to produce an enzyme that breaks down acetaldehyde, one of the main causes of hangover. This is murky territory for The Scout, let me know if you’ve tried it, sometimes we are forced to chose the lesser of two evils.

• Beware the broken window effect: This is one of the main reasons I dropped alcohol, as I found that I had kind of a broken window mentality towards my own body. Basically “Well I’m already hungover, might as well eat some seed oils, skip the gym and have a bloody mary”. If you can contain the debauchery to one night only you should be able to bounce right back.

• High noons or tequila and water/soda: If I cant evade drinking, I stick to this. Sadly wine and beer make me feel terrible, if I stay straight on the above I usually bounce back then next morning.

Happy Holidays Scouts, onward to 2024: The year the seed oil dominos shall finally begin to topple.

🫡