There are a number of reasons to keep January drier than the rest of the year - not least that the festive season is, more often than not, an excuse for an extended period of exponential imbibing as we career towards a series of social end goals. Whilst it might feel freeing to have a get-out-of-jail-free card to throw caution to the wind in blinkered wild abandon, having what appears to be a legit reason to overindulge does not negate the associated health risks so many of us choose to turn a blind eye to - not least the hangovers, the vicious cycle of blood sugar crashes and associated cravings, the dehydration and disruption to sleep cycles that all impact our operating systems ability to function optimally.
Nutritional Therapist Phoebe Liebling outlines these below and explains the benefits of turning to The Madre water kefir as a natural, v low alcohol alternative at this time of year
'Let’s not lie, hangovers aren’t pleasant & it also seems that getting older means they intensify too. How unfair.
The thing about a hangover is it’s actually not the alcohol that’s causing you to feel less than impressive, it’s the intermediary breakdown product. Plus the fact that drinking will impact your blood sugar regulation, sleep quality, hydration status & requirement for certain nutrients.
The benefit of turning to Agua de Madre water kefir over a regular carbonated beverage is 3 fold when it comes to chasing away foggy heads (& any other negative consequences you may find yourself experiencing the morning after the night before!). It’s fermented nature will support liver detoxification aiding the removal of those bally metabolites that are making you feel off colour, it’s naturally lower sugar + very small caffeine content is enough to support your energy in light of less effective sleep + relieve headaches by causing blood vessel dilation, & if that wasn’t enough you also get naturally occurring vitamin C & electrolytes from the real food ingredients they use to flavour their delicious blends.
Oh & of course their fizzy freshness makes them super easy to sip on to boost your hydration levels back up to optimal levels.'
Phoebe Liebling - Natural Nourishment. Nutritional Therapist & Clinical Director. BSc (Hons) DipNT | mBANT mNNA CNHC GNC
It is worth bearing in mind you don’t need to take an all or nothing approach to January either - in fact it’s far more valuable to start introducing a modicum of balance and awareness now to manage the detrimental effects of a dogged desire to embody the festive spirit in the preceding months. For in truth, alcohol isn’t really the problem; trace alcohol is a naturally occurring substance & one of the most common organic compounds, as such it is present in most foods & inherent to most living things, this increases according to a number of variables, ripeness and fermentation being some of the major ones.
By simply avoiding alcohol entirely you are, perhaps, missing a vital point, instead try treating January as an opportunity to reset your system & focus on a more sustainable strategy to drinking instead; swap mass produced wine (the living enzymes destroyed in the production process with sulphur) for natural wines; swap booze & sugar heavy cocktails for versions lighter, more complex and infinitely more interesting (try water kefir in the mix here!); replace sugar laden or, or worse still, sugar replaced soft drinks with gut nurturing, fermented and naturally sparkling probiotic beverages instead.
Put the groundwork into setting a new precedent now for drinking more consciously; think about drinking more on a spectrum of living, of health, of alcohol; your choice, but DO choose.
#DrinkConsciously
#drinkingonaspectrum