What to drink when you're not drinking?

Let's face it: after a long, hectic day with the trials and tribulations of modern life, there are few things more appealing than unwinding with a glass of wine or a G&T on the sofa once the dishwasher is stacked and the kids are in bed. At weekends, we like to let our hair down with friends, whether that's down the pub, or at home.

Drinking is so much part of the UK culture and social life that we barely stop to think about it. Those of us who decide to drink less or even stop altogether are the odd ones out, and society doesn't make our lives easy. Ask for an alcohol-free drink and you used to be met with blank faces and a choice between cola, lemonade, fruit juice or water. However, all this is changing.

Why would you not want to drink?

I won't bore you with every health reason to shun alcohol, but there's one angle I am particularly passionate about: your hormones. If you live with endometriosis, are navigating perimenopause, or struggle with pmdd, alcohol may be impacting your symptoms.

Your liver's main job outside of general detox is clearing used oestrogen out of your system. Alcohol jumps the queue. Your liver treats it as a priority toxin, which means oestrogen clearance gets delayed, and that used oestrogen can end up recirculating in the body. For anyone with endometriosis, an oestrogen-driven condition, this matters: more circulating oestrogen can mean more inflammation and worse pain and flare-ups.

In perimenopause, hormones are already swinging unpredictably, and alcohol adds fuel to the fire. It disrupts blood sugar balance, which your adrenal glands and stress hormones are already working overtime to manage. It also fragments sleep, and poor sleep is one of the biggest drivers of worse hot flushes, night sweats and mood symptoms the following day.

For premenstrual dysphoric disorder, alcohol is a depressant that lowers serotonin and GABA, the very neurotransmitters that are already running low in the luteal phase for those who experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder. That "one drink to take the edge off" can leave you feeling flatter and more anxious the next day.

Think back to your first alcoholic drink. Did that taste good? Probably not; most of us have to keep trying until it grows on us. Alcohol seems to help us relax, loosen our tongue and help us sleep, but we often pay the price. Even with "normal" consumption, the aftermath isn't great: a dry mouth, a headache, sensitivity to noise and light, and crushing fatigue are the classic symptoms of a hangover, which we then try to fix with caffeine or another drink.

Now imagine staying sober more often (not necessarily always). Alcohol-induced sleep is not refreshing; sober sleep is, and better sleep means steadier hormones, calmer cycles, and fewer flare-ups. Your mood will be more stable, your energy more even, and you'll wake up feeling like yourself, not like your hormones ran the show overnight.

Sober is now cool

Back in 2017, Laura Willoughby launched the Mindful Drinking Festival, held at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. Interest has grown steadily since. Alcohol consumption among Britons has been falling for several years, and Brits are "sober curious." Twenty-one percent of 18- to 60-year-olds don't drink at all, and among 18- to 24-year-olds the figure is over 25 percent.

As a result, the selection of non-alcoholic spirits keeps expanding. Seedlip, the first non-alcoholic distillate, hit the market in 2016, and there are now around 70 competitors. A separate genre has emerged in London: sober bars, where no alcoholic drinks are served at all. Brewdog now runs several alcohol-free bars, and Laura Willoughby's Club Soda opened London's first fully alcohol-free off-licence in December 2021.

There's a wide range of "Quit Lit" too, memoirs, self-help and science books on life without alcohol, alongside recipe books for alcohol-free cocktails and mocktails.

So, what sort of thing do people drinking less drink?

High on the list are botanicals, alcohol-free distillates resembling gin, vodka, rum or whiskey. Most manufacturers list mocktail recipes with mouth-watering photographs, and the gins, served with tonic, come impressively close to a real G&T.

Brewers were probably first to recreate an alcoholic drink without the alcohol, and there are now excellent non-alcoholic beers that even seasoned drinkers struggle to tell apart from the real thing. Mocktails have been around for a long time too, think Virgin Mary. Alcohol-free wine and champagne may still need a bit of work, but vintners are catching up fast, so watch this space.

Grown up soft drinks like Kombucha are also a great alternative.

Here are some of my favourites

·        Cordorniu Alcohol Free Rose

·        Kylie Alcohol Free Rose

·        Wilfred’s

·        Caleno Light & Zesty

·        Three Spirit Night Cap and Three Spirit Blurred Vines

·        Equinox Kombucha

·        Hip Pop Kombucha

Take the alcohol-free challenge

Can you last six weeks without alcohol? Here's how to pass the time:

• Sample botanicals, alcohol-free wines or beers to find your favourite tipple

• Get your hands on a mocktail book and shake up a storm of guilt-free drinks

• Track your cycle alongside your mood, sleep and symptoms, and notice what shifts

• Keep a mood and sleep journal, rating both on a scale of 1 to 10 each day

• List the advantages of clear-headedness as you discover them

And who knows? Perhaps your hormones will thank you enough that you'll want to stay alcohol free more often.