Alcohol fasting: alcohol break for six weeks

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Mind and body benefit from a break from alcohol. But giving up time is more difficult for many than expected. The Federal Center for Health Education provides practical tips.

Lent starts quite quietly this year without any previous carnival hustle and bustle. Even so, many people are likely to opt for fasting this year as well.

In addition to classic fasting cures, in which one does without solid food at times, many people concentrate on certain, unhealthy excesses of their consumption: sweets, fast food, social media, but above all: alcohol.

What alcohol fasting brings

In the meantime, word has largely spread that alcohol is a cell poison that can cause harm even in small quantities. The self-experiment alcohol fasting can show how subtly negative wine and beer can also have on people who classify their consumption as moderate.

Refraining from alcohol for several weeks offers a number of (noticeable) advantages:

A break from alcohol has a positive effect on blood pressure and various blood values.
Even if alcohol can help you fall asleep: Without alcohol, you sleep more deeply and more restfully.
Many people feel more productive and energetic without alcohol.
Alcohol is seen as a pick-me-up. In the long term, however, the mood of abstinence can improve significantly.
Some people lose extra pounds by abstaining from alcohol.

Check drinking behavior

Most importantly, alcohol fasting can show you what functions alcohol has in your life and whether the role it plays is possibly bigger than you thought. In this case, the temporary abstinence can help to adjust to a new, lower level. Or you find it so difficult to do without that, for example, you decide to take countermeasures with a professional program.

In lockdown we often consume more

This could be particularly important in this year of the pandemic. Surveys have shown that there are people who have consumed less alcohol in the lockdown because they only drink in company.

But there are significantly more people who have drunk more than before - for example to relieve stress, numb worries, fears and loneliness or to escape boredom. In an anonymous online survey, 37.4 percent of the 3200 or so participants stated that they had drunk “more or much more alcohol” than before.

Addiction doctors are already warning that quite a few could have passed the threshold to hazardous consumption unnoticed in lockdown.

Online fasting campaign "Know your limit"

The Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) offers support for alcohol fasting with its online fasting campaign “Alcohol? Know your limit."

With the start of the Lent campaign, tips can be found on the campaign website on how to make everyday life alcohol-free and how to successfully manage alcohol fasting.

At www.kenn-dein-limit.de there is advice on self-motivation, how to change old habits, as well as recipes for non-alcoholic drinks. It also explains the positive effects of alcohol fasting and why it pays to persevere.

Low risk consumption

The German Central Office for Addiction Issues recommends not drinking alcohol for at least two days a week. On the other days, no more than 12 grams of alcohol are considered low-risk for women - that's a small glass of wine (0.125 liters). For men, the double value applies.

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