Journey to the Sunnyside

Mike: 00:00

Welcome to Journey to the Sunnyside, the podcast where we have thoughtful conversations to explore the science of habits, uncover the secrets to mindful living, and of course, your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial. I'm your host, Mike Hartenbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.

Mike: 00:35

Hey, and welcome back to Journey to the Sunnyside. I'm Mike Hartenbrook, and let me start by asking you something. Let's say you're a guy who drinks a six pack while you're watching the game. Would you call that binge drinking? Now most of us wouldn't, but that's actually the threshold or even beyond it when it comes to binge drinking.

Mike: 00:57

So in today's episode, it isn't about guilt or judgment. It's more about bringing awareness. And I especially wanted to do this in April because this is Alcohol Awareness Month. And because when you understand the different levels of drinking, now with that awareness you can start making better choices that line up with what you really want. So in this episode, I'm going to break down each of these categories.

Mike: 01:23

So first, what's considered moderate drinking? And let's start with the baseline. So the CDC or the NIAAA define moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for a woman or up to two drinks per day for a man. And so for the clarity of this, one drink is, for example, for wine, five ounces of wine. For a beer, it's a 12 ounce beer.

Mike: 01:46

It's not the big giant beer. That's not just one beer. Or 1.5 ounces of liquor, which is most of us know as a shot. So that means in a standard bottle of wine, it contains about five drinks or five glasses of wine. And actually that surprised me because in doing this research, I always thought it was four, to be honest.

Mike: 02:05

So if you already knew that you're ahead of the game, but I think a lot of people are like, okay, that's actually more than I thought. And that's really the point of this episode. This isn't about shaming our behavior or saying that we're drinking excessively. It's about knowing the numbers that we don't actually usually talk about. Now the next one is what is binge drinking?

Mike: 02:23

So this also surprised me the first time. This isn't, I didn't just learn it now. However, when I did hear it, I was like, that's binge drinking? So here's where it gets more surprising. So according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, binge drinking is defined as the following: four or more drinks for a woman, five or more drinks for a man, consumed within a two hour period.

Mike: 02:46

So I think this is why it gets so surprising. So let's say a woman is having dinner with friends, has two glasses of wine while they're cooking, getting ready. They have a glass of wine with dinner. And then maybe afterwards have another glass of wine. It doesn't sound extreme.

Mike: 03:02

It's not like you think of binge drinking kind of like in college kids, just slamming drinks. But honestly, in that example I just gave you by definition is in the category of binge drinking. And on the flip side of a guy who has three beers at a cook hour, barbecuing, that has a couple more over the next couple hours, same kind of thing. You know, it's pretty normal for a guy just to walk in, grab a six pack and say, I'm going have a six pack tonight. But that's in that same category.

Mike: 03:30

And again, this doesn't mean that it's necessarily anything that people are doing wrong or going crazy. But what it does mean is that your body is processing alcohol differently at that point and the risk for poor sleep, higher blood pressure, decision fatigue, and then of course long term effects start to mount up and climb. So bringing this awareness that we're talking about here. And then the third category, which is a more newly categorized or at least category that has been brought into the press recently is called high intensity drinking. So let's take this a step further from binge drinking.

Mike: 04:07

Because to be honest, when I looked at the binge drinking, I found out from my past, to be honest, and I said, oh, four drinks for a woman, five drinks for a man is considered binge drinking. I'd be like, that was a Tuesday for me. So, you know, I was surprised to hear that of course. And so now we have this, also this other category and high intensity drinking is more of a newer term that researchers are using to describe heavier, less frequent, but more intense episodes. And so for a woman that means eight drinks in a session.

Mike: 04:41

For a man it means 10 drinks. And of course, this is probably more in the category that I thought binge drinking was. And this is all in a single session. And this happens in places that we would expect. Big events, weddings, vacations, birthdays, holiday parties.

Mike: 04:57

Now that's the more norm, but also just a regular night out. Many people probably can relate and say, I've had close to, or even at that number just on a regular Friday night, getting into the moment. Now do realize that I'm telling you from my personal experience, from people that I know, both myself working with people and also my own personal history, that yeah, that also did happen. Not a ton, but this really kind of gets us into more of a danger zone of the usual things that we've already been taught about alcohol. When you overdo it, you're susceptible to blacking out and risky behavior and getting into accidents and making really poor choices.

Mike: 05:38

However, also some studies show that high intensity drinking doesn't just raise our short term risks for harm. They're also linked to a higher chance of developing AUD over time, even if it only happens a couple of times a month. So those are the studies. Now let's go a little bit further into this term that might be the first time that you're hearing it. And that is around like who's engaging in high intensity drinking.

Mike: 06:04

And we always assume, you know, hey, young kids in their college, that's how we were in college. That would be pretty normal. However, you've probably read some of the headlines and if you haven't, but according to Monitoring the Future and some recent data from the National Alcohol Survey, intensity drinking rates have declined among college age adults, but they're increasing when it comes to adults aged 35 to 60. And in 2024, a study found that nearly one in eight adults in that age category reported drinking 10 or more drinks in a night on a regular basis. So what's going on with that?

Mike: 06:41

Young people, of course, they drink to socialize and feel confident, part of rite of passage. However, middle aged adults, they're reporting to drinking at these levels to cope with stress, with burnout, grief, maybe parenting, work pressure, all the different kinds of reasons that many of us probably know all too well. However, also many of us also know that 2020, the pandemic changed a lot of these patterns. Drinking became more of a release valve and a reward system. It was more normalized.

Mike: 07:14

And a lot of times put in these comical ways for us to laugh about how much we're drinking or that we're allowed to drinking. But for some of these, these bad habits, they ended up sticking around. So now let's keep going further on what this means because the science tells us that even occasional high intensity drinking sessions, especially for those who are middle aged, it is linked to increased risk of heart arrhythmias and stroke, higher rates of cognitive decline in memory issues, suppressed immune function, and significantly, as we know, worse sleep, worse anxiety, and recovery. And you probably felt that maybe the Sunday dread, the crappy sleep and emotional hangover, all that feeling being out of sync with yourself. And this isn't just about what happens during the night.

Mike: 08:06

We also know about what we lose the days following. All right. So how do we use this information moving forward? And as you know, we're not here to say you can't drink forever. I'm not going to sit here and say, Hey, that's never going to happen.

Mike: 08:20

None of those categories you're ever going to drop into, except for the perfect moderate one or the abstinence one. No, we're not perfect. You know, it's very possible that any of those things could happen. However, what we are saying is that when you know these categories, you can start making more conscious choices. It helps you to see when a pattern is likely to happen, when maybe you were going to drink more than you planned and what categories and risks that put you in.

Mike: 08:49

So like regularly drinking five drinks in a sitting, that might be working against your goals for your health, your energy and your mood. So when you know that you can still enjoy your night, but maybe you're going to be more intentional around where you're going to put that limit. So I'm going to end it with my normal challenge or reflection. Today is going be a reflection. And I want you to ask yourself, when I drink more than, let's say, four to five drinks in a night, how do I feel the next day and how often am I crossing that line without realizing it?

Mike: 09:22

And if I'm working hard to feel better overall, does this habit support it? And here's the bigger question. If I really want to protect my long term health, what kind of drinking supports that goal? Because at the end of the day, this isn't about what you're doing that's right. It's about what you're doing that's right for you.

Mike: 09:42

And that might mean setting a new limit or spacing out your drinks or skipping that last drink, or maybe choosing a non alcoholic option for one more night than usual. Remember, awareness creates options and that's where the change begins, not with willpower, but with clarity. And remember, with information, with keeping to your goals, to your why and believing in yourself, you got this. I know you do. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your week and weekend.

Mike: 10:13

And until I see you next Monday, cheers to your mindful drinking journey.

Mike: 10:17

This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free 15 trial.