Wine Enthusiast Magazine
SubscribeI’m nearing the end of a week without wine. I don’t believe in the toxin thing, like so many people do. You know, “I’m not eating any meat or drinking any alcohol for a month. I’m eating only grapefruit and avocado and drinking water imported from the Ganges River to cleanse the toxins from my body.”
I don’t think wine is a toxin, more like a tonic, and with all the old and new evidence that wine is good for your health it’s kind of perverse to abstain in order to feel better, isn’t it? So what am I doing this for? That’s what I’ve been asking myself as I pour another San Pellegrino and bitch at the next child to walk by without his/her chores done.
I mean, I still drag when I get up in the morning. I’ve got a pain in my back that I haven’t had since I started working out regularly in 2005. I still hate the 75-minute slog to my office in Marin County through a tangle of Lexuses plumbers’ pickups going 5 mph and self-righteous Priuses clogging the HOV lane. (Even single drivers can use the high-occupancy lane in Marin if they drive hybrids.)
So why am I doing this? Well, for one thing, to make sure I’m not physically dependent on wine. I’ve been drinking nearly daily for most of my adult life, so I’ve found that it’s a good reality check to stop once in a while for a few days and take stock. Truthfully, in my case it’s been once in a very long while. Thankfully, I’ve had no major symptoms since my last glass of anything last Saturday night.
On Sunday and Monday nights, I did have recurring urges to pour a glass of wine. That would taste good rignt now, wouldn’t it? We’ve eaten dinner at home all week, and each time I sat down, my water glass, plate and silverware looked kind of lonely without their usual buddy, the big old balloon of a red wine glass.
I probably was crankier than normal for a couple of days, and there is the back thing, but it’s minor and I’m going to say it’s caused by too much typing on my MacBook when not positioned at the right height. I basically think I’m clear on the physical addiction front. No shakes, no hallucinations, no imaginary spiders crawling up my back and so on.
Probably most importantly, it wasn’t difficult to give up.
The benefits have included a less interrupted night’s sleep. Instead of the usual 3 a.m. wakeup which sometimes lasts till dawn, I’ve been sleeping through till 5, and then nodding off again until NPR wakes me with the death toll in Iraq. Suddenly there’s more free time in the evening to do stuff around the house like watch “House” episodes that we’ve Tivoed and help Child No. 1 with his college applications. I do feel a bit calmer, but I’m eating more sweets than usual, so I doubt if I’m losing any weight from skipping the coniderable calories in wine.
Basically I’m glad I’m doing it, and remembering why it’s a good exercise in self-control. Maynard Amerine, the late professor of enology at UC Davis who wrote a couple of the seminal texts on winemaking, once told me that if you can give up drinking for a week per month or a month per year, then you know you’re in a healthy relationship with wine. I’m not planning on abstaining for that long, but I think his advice was good.
I know that a lot of people reading this are regular wine drinkers. What’s your philosophy on taking breaks from time to time? How often do you do it, and what are the benefits?
Filed under: Health & Diet
9 Comments
November 30th, 2007 at 11:47:44 AM
All I can say is, A day without wine is like a day without sunshine. Enjoy those San Pellegrinos, Jim!
November 30th, 2007 at 3:18:55 PM
Just enjoy your life. We work hard; enjoy the dinner & your wine!!!
November 30th, 2007 at 5:16:51 PM
I agree with you, Jim. Though I don’t string too many dry days together, I do sometimes feel more spring in my step if I do. Now if I can just schedule a contiguous week of abstinence.. Not! :)
December 1st, 2007 at 12:41:15 PM
I don’t drink every day, but almost. Since I work in a tasting room where the staff is allowed, no, expected to drink, it would be hard to go a week without wine. Good thing I have no plans to try any time soon!
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:29:24 PM
Irregardless of what past indiscretions I may have from my mis-spent youth, I believe that Terence (Roman,185-159 BC) was correct with “Moderation in all things.” Drink on, Garth.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:41:25 PM
My late father- in- law always used to go “on the wagon” for the month of January, according to my husband, and it became a ritual my husband observed also. So when I met him, I decided to climb on, too. I am an almost-daily wine drinker ( I have to take “call time” for my job, so naturally I abstain on those days). My experience has been that those first few days in January are rather annoying, but then I more or less forget about it. We also usually diet in January (like the rest of the world), so cutting out the wine helps with that. Overall, I think its a good idea, for whatever time frame one choses, if only to do a reality check!
December 4th, 2007 at 8:46:21 AM
Jim: You touch on a subject that isn’t usually discussed in wine magazines, blogs or marketing materials, and I commend you for it.
The wine media, including my own wine blog and newspaper column, tend to focus on wine’s celebratory, life-enhancing attributes — to the exclusion of pretty much all else.
Thanks for reminding us that wine has a bit more “complexity” than that.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:13:32 PM
Ah, good post. All things in moderation. I think a glass or so a day isn’t going to cause DT’s when you go a day or three without wine, but it’s a good idea to clear your mind out of wine if for no other reason than to come back to it with a renewed sense of joy for a drink that gives so much pleasure.
Good post.
Jeff
December 5th, 2007 at 10:49:57 AM
Most experts in the addiction field will say that if you need to make rules about drinking, such as scheduled periods of abstinence, then you most likely have some type of problem with drinking. The DSM-IV criteria for addiction include interference with ordinary life activities (which would include family time around the TV and helping kids with schoolwork), and considerable time spent planning/thinking about drinking (or thinking about NOT drinking). The criteria also include tolerance and large amounts over time. Alcoholism is not about physical dependence; while that may be a feature of the disease in some people, many alcoholics never experience physical withdrawal symptoms.
Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade, but in my experience to ask the question is to answer it.