We asked experts what happens to your health if you replace that beer or wine with a spa red.
The Dutch drink an average of 7 liters of pure alcohol per year, according to figures from the Netherlands Institute for Alcohol Policy STAP. Nevertheless, the percentage of people who do not drink or listen to the drinking advice of the Health Council has risen to 44.4 percent in 2020, says Ninette van Hasselt, Head of Expertise Center for Alcohol at the Trimbos Institute.
The effects of quitting alcohol
According to Peter Jansen, Emeritus Professor of Liver Diseases at the AMC, briefly stopping drinking alcohol has little effect on your health. Van Hasselt about this: “People often sleep better if they don’t drink alcohol for a while, they feel fitter, and notice that their skin recovers, since alcohol dries out the skin and losing weight is also easier.”
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It is wiser to drink one glass a day than ten glasses of beer once a week
Liver recovery after stopping alcohol
According to Jansen, ‘heavy drinkers’ notice more of an alcohol stop than people who occasionally drink a glass. The professor says it is wiser to drink one glass a day than ten glasses of beer once a week, which he classifies as ‘binge drinking’. “Large amounts of alcohol in the short term affect the liver, which can lead to inflammation. Too much alcohol can cause irreversible liver damage. The good news is that, given the restorative capacity of the organ, the liver can recover through alcohol abstinence.”
Watch the video from the University of the Netherlands below: What does a month without alcohol do to your body?
In addition, it would be the case that people who take an alcohol stop will think more consciously about their alcohol consumption. Van Hasselt recognizes that. “We often stick a drinking glass on everything that is nice and cozy, but if you consider where that image comes from, you arrive at the image.”
The basic insurance reimburses a maximum of one year of counseling for smoking cessation. If that doesn’t work, you can Independer receive a reimbursement from a supplementary insurance.
Stop drinking alcohol
In January 2019, Caroline (35) stopped drinking alcohol overnight. The main reason was that she wanted to quit smoking. “For me, alcohol and cigarettes were so linked that I couldn’t quit smoking.” Now she mainly notices the advantages of her choice. ,,Not that I drank much, more a nice number of glasses of wine on the weekend. If you drink, you will be a bit tired the next day. Now I can easily get up at 7 a.m. next to my bed.” Does Caroline rule out drinking for the rest of her life? “There are such good non-alcoholic alternatives,” says Caroline. “I don’t need anything else anymore.”
This article previously appeared on this site on January 3, 2022.
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