How Many Glasses of Wine CAN YOU DRINK A WEEK?
PC: @birtahlin
I’m in my late 20’s now. That’s to say, I cannot handle my alcohol the same way I could in my early 20’s. More than not being able to, my desire for alcohol has also lowered. And while I enjoy a good cocktail here and there, my true (and first) love has always been wine. I can live without hard liquor, but I cannot do without that crisp wine. Still, even wine has been waking me up with a hangover lately, and a few too many would ruin my entire next day - headache, dark under eye circles, low energy and all. Tired of this lowered tolerance, I vowed to go sober for one month… okay sort of.
The deal was that I get one drink pass if it’s a work event. If I had more than that, I had to buy my roommate a coffee.
Did I succeed? Honestly, almost. The first two weeks were a breeze. Then I had a drink at a work event. Then another at another event. And by the beginning of my last week I thought: is this really worth it? I still waited to my last day of the month, but I didn’t necessarily change in any ground breaking manner.
This whole process led me to another more realistic, practical question: what’s a healthy amount of wine to drink a week? What’s considered too much, and what’s hardly going to have an effect on my liver? Because let’s be honest, while cutting out all pleasures in life like sugar, alcohol, and gluten might sound healthy, what’s the point in life if you cut out all that’s “bad” for you? Unless there’s a serious medical reason involved, there’s really no need to banish all the good things in life just to live an extra year.
Because I am in my *balanced girl* era, I’m striving to have a moderate amount of wine, and did a little research to find out what is the “optimal” amount of wine to drink a week.
How many glasses of wine is healthy?
The answer to this varies on your heigh, size, and gender, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the dietary guidelines recommend that one drink or less a day is a moderate and acceptable amount for women. That’s seven glasses of wine a week, which feels pretty doable.
Is drinking wine good for you?
Rumors have been floating around that wine, particularly red wine, can actually be good for you. I wanted to get to the bottom of this and found a two-part answer. Yes, studies have shown that red wine drinkers have a 26% lower risk of getting cardiovascular disease, 35% lower risk of total mortality, and 51% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality. Overall, “it was shown that low (1-7 drinks/week) and moderate (8-21 drinks/week) [red] wine drinkers have 20% and 24% less all-cause mortality than non-drinkers of wine.”
THAT BEING SAID… drinking three drinks or more have been linked to prostate cancer. For women, you can also increase the risk of breast cancer.
The goal of this blog is not to scare you, or to tell you that drinking is good or bad. The purpose of this is merely to inform you, so you can make the best judgement for yourself. I believe that at least knowing what’s considered a lot and what’s considered a little can help guide your decision in how you handle alcohol.
