We’re all familiar with “Dry January,” the time when we decide to take a break from alcohol after overindulging during the holidays. But have you heard of the summer version, “Dry July?” Honestly, I hadn’t until recently.
Founded in Australia in 2008, Dry July is a month-long fundraising campaign that began that encourages people to abstain from alcohol in July to raise money for cancer patients, their families, and caregivers. Beyond raising funds, the campaign seeks to inspire social drinkers to reassess their habits and embrace healthier lifestyle choices.
“We know that alcohol weighs down the liver. It has to be metabolized in the liver,” Dr. Taz Bhatia, a board-certified integrative medicine physician and wellness expert, told Flow Space during an episode of Asking for a Friend. “One of the biggest issues for women in perimenopause and menopause is that the body does slow down. The gut slows down, and the liver slows down. You have sort of the sum of our sins, so to speak, living in the body that all our different organs have to process and have to metabolize.”
After listening to Dr. Taz discuss the negative effects of alcohol on perimenopausal and menopausal women, I started reflecting on my own weekly alcohol consumption. While I’m not quite at the doorstep of the menopause transition, Dr. Taz’s words struck a chord with me. In fact, they came at a time when my partner and I decided to cut back on drinking alcohol, providing the perfect motivation to try something new. Plus, according to data published on PubMed, abstaining from alcohol for just one month can lead to numerous health benefits, including improved sleep and weight loss.
Wanting to reduce my alcohol consumption — and improve my health — I decided to explore a variety of delicious non-alcoholic beverages. After all, if my partner and I were going to cut back on drinking, we needed some tasty zero proof alternatives to enjoy.