N/A Beers: pros vs. cons

N/A beers are so heavily debated in the sobriety community, so in today's episode, we're breaking down the pros and cons to consuming them as a sober person.

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Transcript

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Non-alcoholic beers, let's talk about them because half the sobriety community loves them, half the sobriety community hates them, and thinks they will cause you to spiral back into a full-blown drinking problem. So, all of that and more in today's episode. But first, some housekeeping. Guys, life do be lifing right now, and I am so busy, uh, which is a good thing. I feel very blessed, but I I don't think I can continue doing this podcast two days a week, which absolutely breaks my heart. But like to keep the quality and be able to put the videos on YouTube and be able to have high-quality guests come on, I think one quality episode per week instead of two like half-assed episodes per week is going to be the way forward. So if you are missing sobriety content and you wish that there was more than one episode per week, you can follow the TikTok page, the Sober Scoop, you can join our Facebook support group at the Scoop Troop. All of this info will be in the description of the episode. But I think once per week is all I can commit to at this point. And so I'm really sorry if that throws you off. But please feel free to scroll back in the archives. There are over a hundred episodes on the Sober Scoop podcast. So go back, re-listen. The old episodes still have a lot of amazing value. So if you're new here, definitely like go all the way back and just work your way up to the present. But from here on out, I think I am committing to just one episode a week. And occasionally, if I feel like hopping on for a bonus episode, then I will. But for now, it's going to be once a week episodes. And I thank you so much for your understanding and for being a part of this community. If you want daily content, like I said, the Scoop Troop TikTok page, but then also my main page, India Gance, is where I talk about everything in my life from nutrition to fitness to sobriety. And that page is just like all-encompassing. So if you want to join over there, the handle is India Gance. Okay, now that all the boring stuff is out of the way, let's get into today's episode all about non-alcoholic beers and wines. Welcome to the Sober Scoop. This is a judgment-free zone where we talk about how to get sober and stay sober. You're not alone. I hope you feel seen. Putting alcohol is the best decision I've ever made. So maybe this is just what my algorithm is showing me, but I see a lot of people talking very negatively about non-alcoholic beers. And I get it, you know, I really do. Non-alcoholic beers are pretending to be alcohol, right? And even just mentally thinking about drinking a beer, like it that's not good for you mentally in sobriety, or at least that's what a lot of people think. They think like, oh, it's served in the same bottle, you're cracking into it, it's gonna remind you of alcohol, it's gonna make you want the real thing, and you're gonna like have that taste and wish you had the feeling to go along with it. I totally get it. And then there's also the argument of like a lot of non-alcoholic beers have quote unquote less than 0.5%, which is true. So then people are saying that's not actually sober if you're consuming that type of non-alcoholic beer where it has like a trace of alcohol. And I get that too, because I'm pretty strict with my sobriety. Like I mean, for me it's 100% on or 100% off. And at this point in my sobriety, almost two years down the road, I really don't drink any NA beers. And for me, like I really am fully sober and I like being fully, fully sober. But that's not to say that drinking NA beers is not fully sober. This is where like defining your sober journey has to be up to you. Like you can listen to a hundred different sobriety creators online, and each one will have just like a little bit of a different story with how they view their sobriety. And so you have to write that story for yourself. So I want to take you back to my sober journey and the very beginning, and I want to tell you uh a positive story about non-alcoholic beers because for me, they were my savior. They were the reason I think I was able to even get sober in the first place, if I'm being honest. So, yeah, here we go. I was a beer drinker. I talk a lot about how I used to drink like 15 beers in a day. I loved Coors Lights. I would drink like white claws and um wine as well. But Coors Light was my drink of choice, and like if I'm out at a bar, I'm ordering a beer. That's just that's what I enjoyed the most. And if I needed to up the ante, like I would mix it with a shot, not mix, but like I would do a fireball shot and then have my beer or something like that. But anyway, beer was my drink. And I learned through getting sober that it wasn't just about the alcohol. Like if if it was just about the alcohol content, I would have been getting like vodka shots or you know, tequila shots, and I wouldn't have cared what it tastes like. But I truly enjoyed the taste of beer. And I loved pairing beer with food. Like I would um have a beer with salty things like pretzels, popcorn with my meals. Um, I craved beers like when I'm sunbathing, out on the deck. I just loved beer beyond the alcohol. I loved the experience of beer. I loved going to breweries. Um, I loved beer. I liked the flavor. And so in my sobriety, I I still wanted that flavor. And if you're like a cocktail drinker, for example, there are a lot of NA options that are like cocktails, right? You could have a dirty soda, you could have a mock tail, you could have an adaptogen drink, you could have sodas, um, you could have juices. Like there's a lot of things that are similar to a cocktail. But as far as beer, like can you even think of one other non-alcoholic beverage that is not sweet, but that like savory flavor of beer? I I can't really think of anything. I mean, you could have like a chamomile tea, maybe, and that's like a non-sweet drink that you can have. Um, or like maybe coffee in a weird way, but I feel like coffee almost scratches the itch for wine rather than beer. But anyway, to each their own. Um, there's really not any flavor similar to beer that is not beer. Do you know what I mean? So uh imagine you drink something every day and then you just stop drinking it. It's not just the alcohol and like the physical effects of consuming booze, but it's also the element of flavor. I had that flavor every day and I craved that flavor in sobriety. So non-alcoholic beers were essential to me. I mean, I I needed them because it was like the ritual of having a drink, it was that flavor. And yeah, I would try to get the 0.0% non-alcoholic beers, but occasionally when I was out at a bar or something, I would order the less than 0.5% ones because it's all they had or something. But um to me, that wasn't like breaking my sobriety. It kept me sober. And this is where the whole like weed conversation, not to get too sidetracked, but like the THC conversation comes in, is people say that consuming THC keeps them from doing like harder drugs or from consuming alcohol. And that's where I say again, like everyone's sober journey is their own. Some people are on like ADHD medications. Does that count as being sober? Okay, that's taking it a little too far. But you know what I'm saying? It's like I consume caffeine and lots of it, to be honest. So am I sober? Everybody's sobriety looks a little different. For me, it's like I don't consume alcohol. But occasionally, a non-alcoholic beer with less than 0.5% that might have a trace of alcohol in it comes into the picture. And for me, that's not breaking my sobriety. That's not derailing me. In fact, like I was saying in the beginning, that is exactly what kept me on track. And I wonder if I would have given in to drinking if I didn't have non-alcoholic beers as an option. They were the thing that kept me sober, that kept me on track, and that kept me from absolutely resenting sobriety. Because you don't want to quit and be like, oh my god, this sucks, my life sucks, everything sucks, right? Non-alcoholic beers for me kept things interesting. I was like, oh, I still get to have something. I was living with my boyfriend at the beginning of my sobriety, and you know, he would crack into a beer or have his weed after work or something, and like for me to crack into a non-alcoholic beer, it kind of felt like I was participating. Like my life wasn't totally, completely changed. I mean, sobriety is a huge change in life. And I wanted as best as possible to keep things as normal as I could. For some people, they want to go to rehab and they want to cut off all ties to the world and like dedicate some time to sobriety. They want to like reevaluate their friendships and cut people off and like just start fresh. And I think there is some serious beauty to that as well because you are becoming a different person. But for me, I actually think that I found success in sobriety because I kept my life as normal as I possibly could. Sobriety itself was a big enough change that I didn't want to change everything about my life. So I actually, even from day one in my sobriety, I still would go out to bars with people. Um, I bought non-alcoholic beers to have at home so that in the evening, when I'm having a craving, like I can crack into one of those. And it did it for me. Having a non-alcoholic beer did it for me. And it did not make me want to have the real thing. The flavor was really what I was craving, and it's pretty cool because like when you have a non-alcoholic beer, you don't usually have more than a couple. Like, maybe in the very beginning I had three max, I mean absolute max, compared to my 15 that I used to have a day. Because here's the thing beer has carbs and um you know it's kind of heavy. And if you're not getting the tipsiness from alcohol, from the alcohol, your body's not wanting more and more and more. You actually like can't drink any more than maybe two. Your body doesn't want it. You sip on it more slowly because you're not like chasing that buzz. It it helped me a lot. Um, and I would just enjoy the flavor. Maybe I'd have some pretzels with my beer, and I'm like, check and check. Got it. Like that was good for me. And it made me not crave alcohol, it really helped with my cravings in the beginning. So, me personally, I am very pro non-alcoholic beers. Like, I would, I mean, if you're a beer drinker trying to get sober, I would almost recommend it. But I'm not even I'm not gonna say that because I totally see the other side of the coin as well. When I hear these creators talking about how they don't like or don't approve of non-alcoholic beers, I'm like, yeah, I I stand behind what you're saying as well. Two things could be true at the same time. They really, really helped me, but I also completely see how they could really hurt someone else and like uh derail them potentially. Because let's say you crack into one of those and you try that flavor and you're like, this is really good, but it's not giving me the buzz. I want the buzz. Then you might go back to the real thing. It might distract you from your progress because you're like trying to get off of alcohol completely, yet you're still having this thing that is pretending to be alcohol that tastes like alcohol. So is that really progress? I see how someone might say that. There's a lot of different reasons for somebody not wanting to drink non-alcoholic beers, and I get that. Um, for me, it really, really helped me. But to continue on with my journey, so in the beginning, I would have like maximum three, usually like two, and then it got to one every evening still, like my normal ritual. And then it maybe got to like every other day. And then it was like only when I was out at a bar and I just wanted something to be able to order at the bar. And then it was actually when I go to the bar, I don't even want a non-alcoholic beer. I'll get a diet soda or an or a cranberry and soda water or you know, something else that I actually want. Um, I stopped desiring non-alcoholic beers. And then it got to a point where I don't want to drink anything that's even pretending to be alcohol. I used to get NA beers to like appear like I was drinking alcohol because I didn't want people to think that I was lame. And then at some point in my sobriety, I got I got really proud of the fact that I was sober. And I wanted to make it known that my beer was non-alcoholic. So I ne I actually still to this day, when I go out to bars and they're like, Do you want a glass for your non-alcoholic beer? If I order a non-alcoholic beer, which isn't very common these days. But if they're like, Do you want a glass for that? I'll be like, No, no, thank you. Um, I I want the bottle to be shown. Like I want people to know that mine is non-alcoholic. I want the athletic brewing plastered across my can so that everyone knows that I am sober. I've gone from like trying to conceal my sobriety to being so proud of it. And if I ever get a non-alcoholic beer somewhere, like I want people to know that it's non-alcoholic. I'm not trying to hide my sobriety. I'm proud of it. But it is interesting that now, almost two years into my sober journey, I don't really want non-alcoholic beers. But I'm able to recognize how much they helped me in the beginning. So if you think that they can help your situation too, then like give it a go. I don't think it's breaking the rules. That's just my personal hot take. This is my podcast, and I can share my opinion on this show. Okay. And my opinion is that they they generally don't uh derail someone's sobriety. I think it keeps people sane. I think it keeps people on track. Heck, if you're not fully sober, if you're sober curious, I think uh they're a great way to like take a night off if you're trying to not drink, you know? Or if you go out and you don't want to drink. If you're one of those amazing people that can control their drinking, good for you, and be like partially sober or moderate or whatever, good for you. Um but yeah, maybe non-alcoholic beers can serve as another option when you want to take a night off. I couldn't have imagined taking a night off when I was a full-blown drinker. Like I said in the beginning, I was 100% on or 100% off, and those were my two options only. There are also non-alcoholic wines. So if you're somebody who always drank like red wine or white wine or champagne or whatever, there are NA versions of those. And here's my general theory. I already said this in the beginning, but um, I just wanted to keep my life as normal as possible, and I didn't want to make it a big deal. That helped me personally, but I totally get how you could be the complete opposite, and you're like, I want to completely restart my life and change everything and reevaluate my friends and get new hobbies, and I get that. But and I'm kind of there now, like I am a totally changed person, but it's been a two-year journey. I didn't decide to get sober and then instantly change everything about myself. It was kind of a process, even to get interested in like nutrition and fitness, which are which are now like my biggest passions, that took a really long time. They I it's like it's like I kept adding more and more and more. It's like, first let me do the sobriety, then let me do this, then let me do this, start caring about food, start caring about weightlifting. Like it was a process. I didn't just change my life on day one. And what I'm saying is, um, I I didn't want to change everything about my life. I was already changing this huge thing. I just wanted to keep as many things normal or what I viewed as normal in my life as I could. So when my family wants to go out to the bar and play uh golden tea or pool or something like we love to do, I didn't want to be like, oh no, I can't go. I didn't want to avoid the bars and avoid anywhere that has alcohol. I wanted to go and be a part of that. And I wanted it to be the same. I wanted people to treat me the same. I didn't want people to treat me like I had the plague or something, and they like can't talk about booze, they can't drink around me. Like, I wanted everyone to just continue with their lives and for my sobriety pretty much to go unnoticed in the beginning. Like I said, now it's my favorite thing to talk about. I'll talk about it with anybody. I'm passionate about it. But in the beginning, I just wanted to fly under the radar. I didn't want to make it a big deal. So having non-alcoholic beers as an option were it was so amazing for me. It allowed me to just continue with life as normal, to not stand out in a group setting as like the only one not drinking. Um it allowed me to like hang with the same people and do the same things. Obviously, not all the same things. I wasn't going out nearly as much as I did when I was a drinker, and of course, like the the bar nights definitely reduced as I continued down my sobriety. But like it was cool to be able to go do those things, and for me, that's what worked. What worked is still going to the parties where alcohol is present, still going to the bars. And again, on the completely other side of things, I totally see how that could be really, really unhealthy for somebody. I mean, a lot of people avoid anywhere that has alcohol for like a long time in sobriety. One of my favorite people to follow on TikTok, another sobriety creator, she talks about how she went like a year without going out. Well, you know what I mean, like going to a party where there's booze and stuff. And I totally get that. People probably don't want to be around drinkers when they are trying to not drink. It's probably very tempting. There's peer pressure involved. I I get that totally. But like I said, for me, keeping things as they were as much as possible and just having alcohol be the only thing I removed from my life was the best way forward for me. And then eventually it's like I stopped going to the bars as much. I stopped drinking non-alcoholic beers as much. I stopped hanging with the super party animal friends. I stopped doing the things I used to do as a drinker, and I started doing more healthy things. I started getting passionate about fitness, nutrition. I joined a volleyball team. I started diving into golf a bit more, starting a side hustle, whatever. I grew and I learned and I adjusted as time went on. But in the beginning, I just wanted to keep things normal. And that is where the MA beers were my savior. And they gave me that flavor craving that I was desiring. So, this is not an ad and this is not sponsored in any way, but I do want to share with you guys a site that I loved, I loved to shop on. I don't do it as much anymore, but I loved to shop on this site because they have so many fun things for us sober girlies and guys out there. It's called the Zero Proof, and they have NA beers, NA wines, NA champagnes, they have adaptogen drinks, which you guys know I love. They have kava too, which is another very uh debated thing in the sobriety community. And I actually am changing my opinion on it. I'm actually somewhat against kava because it's really bad for your liver. And part of the reason I quit drinking was because I was having liver issues. So, anyways, I was like promoting kava and now I'm like against kava. So Again, this is where the sobriety journey is, in fact, a journey and everyone's story is different. Okay, maybe Kava is good for you. It's not going to be the move for me anymore. But anyway. So uh the Zero Proof, yeah. They have tons of good stuff. Some of my favorites, if you're interested, I love I think you pronounce it desoie, but it's D-E space S-O-I. Um, that's the brand. So the Zero Proof is like a marketplace, right? And then they have a bunch of different brands. So I call it Desoi, Deswa, whatever. Um, they're they're little tiny drinks, they're small cans, and they are adaptogen drinks, but they're more like a little, a little cocktail, um, a little mocktail, I should say. They're really good. I love bringing those to parties. I I love having those when I want to feel fancy, like poured into a cute little glass with some ice. I just love it. I love Desoy. Um, another one. Well, they have tons of NA beers, so I'm not even gonna go down the line. You can filter that in there, and they have tons of NA beers. Like, it's always good to have, in my opinion, a case of those sitting around to like be able to bring to a house party if you get invited to one so that you're not left with nothing to drink and nothing to hold in your hand, because that's just awkward. We gotta have something to hold, right? I do believe that having something to hold is like a comfort blanket. I always recommend that if you're going out as a sober person. But anyway, okay, uh for the NA wines, what is the one I love? Oh yeah, Saint Viviana. Okay. If you were a wine drinker, especially if you like that bite that wine has, Saint Viviana is one of the only ones that I found in early sobriety that actually gave me that bite that I was craving from a wine. All the other ones are too sweet. There are a couple other good ones. Something with bird. Is it oddbird? I think it's oddbird. That's another good one. I really like their rose. Um, I think it's a sparkling rose. Yeah. But anyway. Oh yeah, oddbird. Sparkling rose. I think that's what it's called. I'll leave this all in the description. Um, but St. Viviana was the first one I discovered where I was like, oh, this actually gives me what I'm craving with a wine. Because that's another thing, too, is like I didn't reach for wine as my first choice, but I loved wine for a food and wine pairing. I love charcuterie, and I would always have wine with charcuterie. Like I would say my boyfriend and I would have like a once-a-week charcuterie night. My family loves charcuterie. So that was something I like really thought I was gonna be missing out on in sobriety. And so when I found St. Viviana, it gave me that bite of wine, uh, that bite that wine has. I will be honest with you, I have not found a red wine, non-alcoholic, that is anything like a real glass of red wine. So that's something that I just had to get over. That, in my opinion, red wine, full alcohol, full octane cannot be replicated. That's just my opinion. If you have found one that you think actually tastes like red wine or is good and not too sweet and not too juicy or whatever, let us know. But to me, there's no replica for real red wine. So that's something I just I don't even think about it, to be honest. I I have I try to get that out of my brain because that was something I was really hung up on, is I was like, there's no replica for red wine. So I guess I just gotta get over it. And I did, of course, and now I don't even think about it. You know, everything heals with time. But St. Viviana is the one that had the bite of wine in general, it's more like a red wine and it it's lightly sparkling, so it's not like champagne, you're not gonna be burping up a storm, okay? It's a light sparkling white wine, non-alcoholic. Um, and it's really good. And they have that on the Zero Proof, along with a million other amazing things. So if you're on the same train as me in the beginning of sobriety, which is like, I just want to continue life as normal. I want to find alternatives that are similar to what I used to drink, then the Zero Proof would be a good place for you to shop. If you are like, I want nothing to do with alcohol, and I don't even want to drink stuff that's pretending to be alcohol or even similar tasting to alcohol, then no need to shop there. You don't have to go to the Zero Proof. You can just continue on with diet sodas or dirty sodas. Have you guys had dirty sodas? It's like soda with syrup and cream. I just bought all this stuff to make them. I'm so excited. But anyway, yeah. Have your sparkling waters, like have your juices, whatever you want to have. Have your coffees, yum, hot chocolate, tea. Ooh, love it. Iced tea with lemon. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm. Dive into all that stuff. But if you want the NA fun options that got me through the beginning of my sobriety, you can go to the ZeroProof. I'll leave the link in the description. And I do have a discount, but I don't think I have a code. I think you just have to click the link that's in this episode. So anyway, wanted to give that to you as an option. I have worked with them in the past. I love them, and I used to shop on there all the time. So yeah, I would recommend it if you're interested. And thanks for listening to today's episode. I know that this is kind of a hot take, so if you have a different take than me or the same take as me, feel free to leave a comment or leave a review on this episode. I'd love to hear your thoughts. This is a highly debated topic in the sobriety community, and I don't feel like there is any one right answer or wrong answer here, okay? Everybody is writing their own story, and you can write your own too. And I will leave you on that note. Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you next Tuesday for another episode. I'm sorry that one will not be coming out on Thursday. I like the idea of once a week on Tuesdays. You got through the Monday hump, you listened to our Tuesday episode, get you through the next or the rest of the week. Um is that a good day? Yeah, let's move forward with Tuesday only episodes. Thanks for being here. You guys mean the world to me. Feel free to join our Facebook support group if you haven't already. The link is in the description with all the links to all the other things that I mentioned in this episode because I know it was a lot. Thank you again, and I will see you next time on Tuesday. Tuesday! Okay, bye.