Alcohol Awareness Month: 8 Facts Everyone Should Know About Alcohol

I'm your host, Molly Watts.

“If you want to change your drinking habits and create a peaceful relationship with alcohol,”

you're in the right place. This podcast explores the strategies I use to overcome a lifetime of family alcohol abuse more than 30 years of anxiety and worry about my own drinking and what felt like an unbreakable daily drinking habit. Becoming an alcohol minimalist means removing excess alcohol from your life

so it doesn't remove you from life. It means being able to take alcohol or leave it without feeling deprived. It means to live peacefully, being able to enjoy a glass of wine

without feeling guilty and without needing to finish the bottle.

With science on our side, we'll shatter your past patterns and eliminate your excuses. Changing your relationship with alcohol is possible. I'm here to help you do it. Let's start now. Well, hello and welcome or welcome back to the Alcohol Minimalist podcast.

With me your host, Molly Watts coming to you from... Well, it's a downright dreary organ. Yep, absolutely dreary, very rainy. But kind of this weird misty light rain, but it's just very all over. And, you know, just when you thought I had turned a corner to springtime

and this beautiful weather, we're right back to it. So the April showers have hit and I see them all week long around here, which is kind of dreary. Hey, no matter what the weather April is, alcohol awareness month and as such, I thought that it might be a good idea to do something

that emphasizes facts over opinions around alcohol. I want to step back from the noise and the mixed messages we hear and come back to something very simple. Facts, not myths, not cultural beliefs, not marketing, just facts. Because when we understand alcohol more clearly, we can make better decisions

for ourselves and that's really what this work is all about for me. Not judgment, not labels, just awareness, honest awareness. So today I want to share eight facts that everyone should know about alcohol.

And as always, my hope is not that it creates fear or shame for anyone.

My hope is that it helps you think a little more clearly, a little more consciously about the role alcohol plays in your life.

“So let's start with the one I think is most important.”

Alcohol is a known carcinogen and alcohol use increases cancer risk. This is one of the biggest facts about alcohol that exists. And yet I still think it's the one that many people are not necessarily aware of. We're definitely aware that smoking is that smoking tobacco causes cancer that tobacco is a known carcinogen.

But they don't necessarily apply the same practical logic to alcohol when, in fact, alcohol is a class one carcinogen. In other words, it is known to cause cancer in humans. The U.S. surgeon general says that in 2025 states that alcohol consumption is causally linked to increased risk for at least seven types of cancer, including breast cancer,

colorectal cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer, and cancers of the mouth, throat and larynx. Now, cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophageal cancer. These are very low, you know, they're not, they're not a high number of these cancer cases. So even increasing your risk, you're still, you know, they're still a low risk in terms of overall cancers. But breast cancer definitely and liver cancer and colorectal cancer, things that we want to

understand the link and the causal link with alcohol use.

“It's important because for a long time many of us were taught to think about alcohol mainly in terms of addiction”

or maybe liver disease. But cancer risk belongs in the conversation, too. Again, not because we need to panic and not because we need to shame ourselves or anyone else, but because we deserve to know what's true. And once you know that alcohol is a known carcinogen, it changes the way you think about the

question of whether a drink is worth it or how much risk you're willing to take on. And that's an important place to start. All right, fact number two, there is no guaranteed safe amount of alcohol for anyone.

I think a lot of us still want to have a clean simple answer to the question.

“So how much alcohol is safe, we want a number, we want a line, we want someone to tell us.”

Stay under this and you're fine. But current public health guidance really doesn't support that kind of certainty. The NIAA states that there is no guaranteed safe amount of alcohol for anyone. And that current evidence supports a straightforward message. The less alcohol, the better.

Now, that doesn't mean risk is the same at every level. Of course, it isn't. One drink is not the same as 10 drinks. But it does mean that there is no established risk-free threshold. There isn't a magic amount where alcohol suddenly becomes harmless.

“And personally, I think that's a more honest way to look at it.”

Instead of asking am I still in the safe zone, maybe the better questions are what level of risk am I willing to accept? Is drinking adding something meaningful to my life? Or is it taking more than I want to admit? Those are the bigger questions, but they're better questions. That number three, a standard drink is often less than people think.

This one sounds simple, but it clears up a lot of confusion. In the US, one standard drink contains 14 grams or about 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol. That's about 12 ounces of a regular beer at 5% alcohol by volume. It's five ounces of wine at 12% alcohol by volume, or one and a half ounces of 80 proof spirits. The NIAAA also notes that a 12 ounce beer at 10% alcohol by volume counts as about two standard drinks.

So this is important, especially for my fellow IPA drinkers. You got to pay attention, especially for imperial IPAs or double IPAs. You want to check the alcohol by volume. Standard drinks matter because a lot of people are not actually measuring their drinks. They're counting glasses, they're counting cans, they're counting what they poured, they're counting what they ordered.

And those are not always the same thing as a standard drink.

A big glass of wine at a restaurant, a big pour, a nine ounce pour is obviously almost two drinks.

“A strong IPA, like I said, could it be definitely more than one drink?”

And a cocktail with more than one shot can easily be more than one drink. So when someone says I only had two drinks that may sound moderate, but depending on what was in the glass, it may actually not be two standard drinks at all. And this is one of the easiest places for people to unintentionally underestimate how much they're drinking. I always tell people when I start when you start our work. If you're a wine drinker, you've got to measure, you've got to look for a glass, put a mark on there that shows you what five ounces looks like, so that we can get real.

Right? We cannot change what we cannot see, so we have to know how many standard drinks were actually drinking. Hey, just a quick break to talk with you for a minute about sunny side. You hear me talk about it on the show often, and it really is my number one recommendation for a mindful drinking app. People use this tool in my groups, in my classes, and they tell me all the time how much they really appreciate the fact that sunny side is a very positive reinforcement. And what I mean by that is that when you track your drinks and let's just say you land for one drink and you ended up having two.

If you're honest and you track that second drink, you're not going to get a message that changed you in any way or represents you.

You're actually going to get positive reinforcement for tracking a drink that you didn't plan on and some ideas and some suggestions for maybe going and grabbing a snack or getting some water. Sunny side is like having a coach in your pocket, and I love that. You can try it for a 15 day free trial, go to www.sunnyside.co/molley to get started today. Fact number four, binge drinking is defined by a mount, not by whether you black out or pass out. Binge drinking is defined by the amount that you're drinking, not by whether you black out or pass out.

This is another one that surprises people because culturally we tend to think of binge drinking as something extreme or dramatic.

The NIAA explains that binge drinking is a pattern that typically brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08% or higher usually within about two hours.

What's important here is that binge drinking is not defined by whether or not you get sick, whether you pass out or whether you do something outrageous. It is defined by a mount.

“And I think that matters because a lot of people dismiss their drinking by saying things like, but I was fine or it wasn't that bad, I didn't lose control.”

But those are not the criteria for binging. You can be binge drinking and still feel like you're holding it all together. You can be binge drinking and still think of yourself as a very normal drinker.

And that's one of the reasons that it can be really sneaky, right?

And the behavior can become more progressive. Fact number five, most people who drink excessively are not alcohol dependent. This is such an important one, especially for the people who listen to this podcast. According to the CDC, most people who binge drink most people who have heavy alcohol use are not physically dependent on alcohol. And more than 90% of US adults who drink excessively report that they binge drink and report heavy alcohol use, but they are not physically dependent.

“I think that helps break down one of the biggest misunderstandings people have about drinking.”

A lot of people assume that if they're not alcohol dependent, then their drinking must not be a real issue. They think, well, I'm not addicted, so I'm probably fine. But there is a huge middle ground between no issue at all and severe alcohol use disorder. And so many people live in that middle ground for years. I know I did. People are functioning, they're doing their jobs, they're taking care of everyone else.

They're not checking the boxes they associate with the word alcoholic. But at the same time, they're worrying about their drinking, they're negotiating with it. They're trying to make rules around it, promising to cut back wondering why it feels harder than it should. The middle ground is real, and you do not have to be alcohol dependent for alcohol to be costing you your peace. Fact number six, alcohol may make you sleepy, but it disrupts sleep quality.

I think this is one that people know, but often they don't really want to know the actual truth or the science behind alcohol and sleep. Because yes, alcohol can help you get to sleep faster, it can make you feel sleepy, it can make falling asleep easier. But that is not the same thing as improving sleep. The NIAA notes that alcohol can initially enhance sleep, but alcohol exposure also disrupts sleep. And sleep disorders are among the most common conditions that co-acor with alcohol use disorder.

So when people say a drink helps new sleep, what is often more accurate is that a drink helps them get sedated. But sedation is not the same as restorative sleep. And if you have ever fallen asleep quickly after drinking, only to wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning, feeling hot or restless or anxious or just wide awake, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Alcohol can make the beginning of the night feel easier while quietly making the rest of the night way worse. And over time, that really adds up. Poor sleep affects mood, it affects energy, it affects cravings, it affects stress tolerance, and it affects how resilient you feel the next day.

So yes, alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but that doesn't mean it is helping you sleep well. Fact number seven, alcohol affects judgment, reaction time, and decision making quickly. Alcohol interferes with the brain's communication pathways.

The NAAA explains that affects balance, memory, speech, and judgment, and that people may not realize that their critical decision-making abilities,

coordination and motor skills are already diminished long before the most obvious signs of intoxication appear. This one really matters because alcohol doesn't just change how you feel, it changes the brain you are using to make your next decision.

“That's why drinking can be so deceptive.”

You may start the evening with very clear intention. Maybe you really do mean to just have one or two, but once alcohol is in the system, the very part of your brain you would need to make careful decisions is already being affected.

And that's a really important distinction, especially for people who keep thinking they just need to try harder or be more disciplined in the moment.

“You're going to have to recognize and realize that your prefrontal cortex may go offline a bit.”

It doesn't mean it's not possible, but it does mean that the challenge is harder to stick to your plans and you got to become aware of that. That number eight, being able to hold your liquor is not a sign that alcohol is safer for you.

I really like ending with this one because it pushes back on such a common cultural belief.

A lot of people take pride in having a high tolerance. They think it means alcohol doesn't affect them as much. They think it means they can handle it. But the NIAA notes that people with a high tolerance tend to drink more and have an increased risk of alcohol use disorder. So being able to hold your liquor is not protection. It doesn't mean alcohol is safer for you. It doesn't mean your body is somehow immune to the effects. It simply means you need more alcohol to feel those effects. And in our culture, that often gets framed like a strength. But from a science forward perspective, it's not a badge of honor.

It's just something to pay attention to. And honestly, I think that one lands for a lot of people that are listening to this. So if you are one of those people that thinks that alcohol is not affecting you as much, you may want to pay attention to how much more you are drinking because of that. So there are the eight facts that everyone should know about alcohol. And what I hope you take away during alcohol awareness month from this episode is not fear, not shame,

“not the feeling that you need to label yourself or rush into some big declaration. What I hope you take away is awareness.”

Because awareness gives you something powerful. It gives you choice.

When you understand alcohol more clearly, you can stop relying on myths. You can stop comparing yourself to the most extreme version of drinking problems. You can stop asking whether you are bad enough to deserve your own attention. Instead, you can ask better questions. What is alcohol costing me? What am I defending? What do I want for my health? What do I want for my peace? What kind of relationship with alcohol actually fits the life I want to live?

“To me, those questions are more appropriate, they matter more, and during alcohol awareness month, that feels like the right place to start. Not with judgment, not with labels, just the willingness to look a little more honestly at what true.”

All right, that's all I have for you this week, my friends. Until next time, choose peace, and I will see you on Thursday. Thanks for listening to the alcohol minimalist podcast. Take something you learned from this week's episode and put it into action. Changing your drinking habits and creating a peaceful relationship with alcohol is 100% possible. You can stop worrying, stop feeling guilty about over drinking, and become someone who desires alcohol less. I work with people in two different ways, and you can learn about them over at my website, go to www.molewauts.com/workwithme.

Or reach out to me directly, shoot me an email, [email protected]. We'll jump on a call and decide what might work best for you. This podcast is really just the beginning of our conversation. Let's keep it going. If there's one thing I know, it's that changed his way easier, and you stop trying to do it alone.