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Comment by another-cuppa | Hacker News Reader

Nah, I still do eat rich full-fat, salty, and carb-heavy food. Trust me, it's the alcohol. The day after drinking used be completely wasted for me. Now every day can be very productive.

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You didn't ask for this suggestion, but I'll say it anyway: evidence suggests that making a similar switch in your regular diet would have a material impact on your well-being beyond what you've experienced with alcohol. If you think back to your drinking days and think you would have gained more from quitting alcohol much earlier, just imagine how you would feel by improving your diet.

My diet is very well-controlled. I fast for 20 hours every day and have a perfectly balanced intake. But if I drink alcohol I will sleep badly and I will have a bad day tomorrow. Why do people refuse to believe this?

This comment thread just reinforces your argument (my belief as well) that people will go out of their way to try and normalize drinking, just like smoking used to be in the 60s.

I get constant questions as well unless I'm babying a random non-alcoholic beverage. I've found that the best non-follow up to "why don't you drink?" is "I used to drink a lot but my doctor told me to try and abstain for my health."

No, the issue is simply that the alcohol intake he describes should not have that big of an impact.

A few pints of beer or some wine with dinner should not completely wreck the day after, unless there is some medical condition that is worsening the effect.

Personally, I don't care of people drink or not, that's their choice. What I'm saying is that his intake was probably heavier than he claims, which would certainly account for his marked improvement in health when he cut out alcohol completely.

My intake was not heavier than I claimed. If you read my post again you'll see that I went for complete abstinence only after drinking became an occasional thing for me. When you drink a few pints of beer once after a month or more of no drinking it has a massive effect.

People disputing this have probably never gone more than a week without alcohol. I'm not prepared to maintain a tolerance to alcohol and it makes me feel bad when I drink occasionally.

All I'm claiming is that a literal poison has a negative effect on me that far outweighs any positive I get from the enjoyment of drinking. Yet people are jumping up in arms saying there must be something wrong with me because they drink regularly and feel fine. I think people could do with some careful introspection and maybe to reconsider what "fine" is.

I occasionally go a month or two without touching alcohol (an appropriate occasion simply doesn't come up for a while), and I simply can't recognize what you say about reduced tolerance and feeling better after a period of abstinence. I simply feel the same as always.

What you seem to be claiming is that we (who enjoy alcohol in moderation and on occasion) are lying to ourselves about how we feel.

> full-fat, salty, and carb-heavy food.

> My diet is very well-controlled

Pick one

You've posed a false choice, well-controlled quantities of high fat/salt/carb food is not a conundrum

Carb-heavy and well-controlled mean different things.

In that case, if it truly wrecked the day after, you were drinking a lot more than just a couple of pints or some wine with dinner, and were probably in denial about it.

I can tell the difference, trust me. I've been there myself, and I still go there on occasion, in good company at a concert/festival, when I know I can waste a Saturday/Sunday after. A couple of pints will not do it.

That's not true. The more you drink the more you can drink. If you either gradually or cold turkey quit for a few months to reset, you would be amazed how less alcohol you would need to feel smashed. From my understanding it is basically training your liver and kidneys.

It is also quite funny: anesthesiologists always know who lies on the intake forms based on the answer to alcohol consumption question. The more the drink, the longer it takes to put them under.

Sure, you can build a tolerance, but "a few pints" or "wine with dinner" occasionally will not do it to any noticable degree.

That's not correct. The point is that with no tolerance for alcohol a few pints or a glass of wine with dinner can have an enormous effect for someone who in general eats very clean and does not drink/stopped drinking for a while.

It is a very observable thing in among the healthy living crowd: August and September are popular abstain from drinking months in these circles. Meeting these people for dinner in October pretty much means they would be visibly buzzed after a glass or two of wine.

Certainly not if you're talking a correctly-sized glass of wine, as you would get in a restaurant. A glass of wine does not mean "fill it to the edge".

What you're describing only happens on an empty stomach, which is a mistake anyone should be able to identify easily.

With all due respect as I do not know you what so ever, I suggest having a chat with one of the non-PC doctors. Real chat. Like "your time is valuable because you are really good at what you do. Like $500 an hour valueable... This is my lifestyle. Tell me what I'm doing wrong or pat me on a back if I'm doing it all right"

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