One month off the booze. Is it worth it? Does your body actually notice? Or is it just a lot of fizzy water and smugness?
Short answer: yes, it's worth it. Long answer: here's the science, minus the jargon, with the odd joke from a public health bloke who now sells beer for a living. Yes. I see the irony too.
What the research found
In 2018, doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London ran a study, published in BMJ Open. They followed healthy people who were moderate to heavy drinkers. Some gave up alcohol for a month. Others carried on as normal.
After just one month, the people who stopped saw improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure and weight. They also saw falls in certain growth factors linked to cancer.
One month. Not a lifetime. Not a monastery. Just one month. That's pretty remarkable.
Your gut gets a holiday
I'm a 46-year-old man who gets genuinely excited about fermented tea, so you knew the gut bit was coming. Your gut is home to trillions of microbes, and they're involved in everything from digestion to your immune system.
On the ZOE Science podcast, Professor Tim Spector explained that alcohol is essentially a toxin for the body. In ZOE's data, the more people drank, the less healthy their gut tended to look.
So a month off gives your microbes a breather. Feed them plants, fibre and something fermented every day. Kombucha is a great one, and you'll find plenty of it next door at Kombucha Club. Yes, that's my other shop. I told you I was excited about fermented tea.
The stuff that doesn't need a lab
You'll get your Saturday mornings back. Proper ones. Where you do things before lunch, like a functioning adult.
You'll save money. Add up a normal weekend and multiply by four. Then sit down.
And beware: some people enjoy it so much they take up running. Next thing you know, they're doing five-hour runs on a Sunday. Swapped hangovers for hamstrings. Still out the game, just with better calves. Don't say I didn't warn you.
After the month
You don't have to go back to how you were, and you don't have to stop forever. Cut down, zebra stripe or stop. Balance, not perfection. For the drinks that make the month easy, see our Sober October guide, or browse 0.0% drinks with no alcohol at all.
The serious bit
If you drink heavily every day, don't just stop. Speak to your GP first, because stopping suddenly can be dangerous. The NHS is also clear there's no completely safe level of drinking. If you drink, keep it to no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days.
