8 ways not drinking alcohol has transformed my life in 2024

Welcome back! In this week’s newsletter, I’m sharing a Good Swap 🔄: alcohol for non-alcoholic beverages!

Back in January, after a phenomenal (albeit somewhat indulgent 🍷🍷 ) trip through the South African wine country, my partner and I decided to do “Dry January,” where we would stop all alcoholic beverages for the month. Inspired by powerful podcasts about the perils of alcohol by Rich Roll, Andrew Huberman, and Liz Moody, I embarked on Dry January with curiosity and enthusiasm. You can learn ALL about my reasons for the decision in my blog post from January, here, which is filled with statistics and health information about alcohol use.

“Dry January” ended up turning into “Dry January through May 14th,” because after I learned that Taylor Swift stopped drinking for her Eras Tour, I decided I did not want to drink during my Good Energy book tour launch (which was my version of Eras Tour, after all! 😆). My partner was incredibly kind and willing to join me on this journey, which made it a LOT more fun. Then, once May 14th hit, we both had no strong interest in drinking, so we didn’t. Now, it’s August, and in many ways alcohol is just no longer an interest. I’ve sort of… forgotten about it 🤯 . Everyone’s relationship with alcohol is very personal, but if you’re thinking about a shift in your alcohol journey, the following newsletter describes how my life has changed since I stopped alcohol (and how it hasn’t!): 

🙅‍♀️🍹 8 ways that stopping alcohol has changed my life:

1️⃣ My cravings for alcohol are GONE

Alcohol is no longer on my radar and I just don’t care about it. This feeling was definitely not immediate. I am someone who really enjoyed it when I would have a drink, and genuinely love(d) a great cocktail or a beautiful glass of wine.

After stopping drinking in early January, I recall on February 14th having a pang of disappointment when my partner and I went out for a Valentine's day date night and weren’t drinking. At dinner, we ended up getting a “No-groni” mocktail and a non-alcoholic beer and it was fine, but it was clear to me that alcohol still had its claws in me, even after 6 weeks of abstaining.

Now, 7 months later, that grip is fully gone, which is a relief. I no longer have the desire or craving for alcohol. This experience has helped me understand that there was probably some level of physiologic craving or dependence on alcohol when it was a part of my life, even though I wasn’t drinking a lot. Because of this shift, it makes me motivated to continue not drinking - why bring a craving back into my life when it’s currently gone, and reignite the interest?

2️⃣ The non-alcoholic drink space is BOOMING, and it’s fun to explore

There are so many incredible innovators building products in the non-alcoholic drink space, and so many restaurants are offering extensive mocktail menus. There are even fully non-alcoholic “liquor stores” popping up all over the internet, like thezeroproof.com and boisson.co. 

My partner and I have been having a blast trying every possible mocktail and non-alcoholic beverage we can get our hands on! Almost every night we have a non-alcoholic “fun” beverage, which rotates between non-alcoholic beer, sparkling elixirs, and creative mocktails (see our framework, below). We haven’t gone deep into the non-alcoholic wine space, mostly because I haven’t found an organic brand that tastes enough like wine yet (email me if you have recommendations!). 

At home, we have a tried and true 5 part formula for mocktails that we love (video here summarizing!):

5 part formula for mocktails at home! 👇️ 

1. 🍾 A bubbly/sparkling element

   • Sparkling mineral water like Pellegrino or Mountain Valley. 

   • Organic flavored sparkling water Rishi Tea and Sound Water, which have no natural flavors. 

   • We use Spindrift as well, but I’d like to phase it out because it’s not organic. 😢 

2. 🍋 Fruity element 

   • Low-sugar kombucha (like Lion Heart) or kvass (my favorite is Biotic Ferments - the beet kvass makes mocktails bright pink)!

   • Organic lime juice, organic lemon juice (I use this lemon squeezer from Amazon), organic orange juice, organic 100% cranberry juice, and others. For most juices, freshly squeezed from the fruit is best, although there are some good bottled options like Santa Cruz Organics and Lakewood Organic.

   • Farmer’s Juice green juices! (I’m an advisor for Farmer’s Juice, I love this company!).

3. 🕺 “Funky” element 

   • The “funky element” helps the drink taste more like a cocktail than a sparkling juice.

   • Funky elements can include non-alcoholic bitters, elixirs and tinctures, aperitifs, herbs (like mint or rosemary), non-alcoholic distilled spirits, ketones, or vinegar.

   • Herbal Tinctures: I LOVE the brand Apothékary, because these products come in glass packaging, are portable (so you can bring them to restaurants easily in your bag 👜!), use organic and wildcrafted ingredients, and have functional benefits like relaxation and metabolic support.

   • Non-alcoholic distilled spirits: Optimist is a wonderful brand of distilled spirits with organic ingredients.

   • Vinegar: My favorite vinegar to use in drinks is the regenerative organic Persimmon Vinegar from Figure Ate Foods.

   • I sometimes use products from Kin, Three Spirit, Seedlip, Ghia, Wilfred’s, and Lapo’s Aperitivo, and while I love the flavors of these and appreciate the work of these brands, unfortunately, they do not include fully organic ingredients, so I use them sparingly. Would LOVE for brands like these to movee towards organic sourcing!

4. 🧊 Fun ice

   • It is incredible how a big piece of circular ice, a big cube, or unicorn ice mold can make a drink. Investing in a few silicone ice molds is a great way to make drinks more fun! Here are a few fun ones from Amazon 😄 👇️ 

     • Glacio Ball Ice Cube Tray

     • 🦄 Unicorn Ice Tray

5. 🍸️ Festive glass

   • Having a mocktail in a wine glass, a coup glass, a martini glass, or a special tumbler makes the experience feel extra special. Look for these at thrift stores!

   • Additionally, a cocktail umbrella and a sprig of fresh mint doesn’t hurt!! ⛱️ 

💙 One of my favorites “funky add-ins” is the “Blue Burn” by Apothékary which is BRIGHT BLUE (the blue comes from spirulina algae!), fully organic, and has functional herbs and roots to support metabolic health, reduction in sugar cravings, and improvement in endurance and workout recovery. Barberry root, one of the herbs in this formula, contains the active compound berberine which is recognized for its ability to manage healthy blood glucose levels, healthy lipid levels, and support healthy weight management.

🍷 I also love the “Wine Down” drops by Apothékary, which turns sparkling water a lovely pink, and includes relaxing ingredients like L-theanine, cinnamon, california poppy, blue vervain and elderberry. Great after dinner to wind down for the evening. (Apothékary was open to giving my audience 15% off with the code DRMEANS till 9/3/2024, but please know I have zero financial relationship with the company, I just love their work!). 

🍺 Oddly, I NEVER drank beer when I was drinking alcohol, but now that I’m off alcohol, I absolutely love non-alcoholic beer. My favorite non-alcoholic beer is Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn, which is crafted to have gluten removed 🤯. Since I don’t eat gluten (gluten triggers anxiety for me - a not uncommon symptom of gluten sensitivity… reply to this email if you want a newsletter on the research on this topic! 🍞), this is a perfect option, but there’s one big problem: it’s not organic 😭. To date, I have not found an organic, gluten-free, non-alcoholic beer on the market. ( 🪩 I AM MANIFESTING THIS PRODUCT 🪩 ). My partner, who does OK with gluten, loves Best Day Brewing. 

🍽️ What to do at restaurants:

At restaurants with a mocktail menu, ask for the lowest sugar option, or ask them to omit the sweetener in the mocktail. If they don’t have a mocktail option, ask for a sparkling water with a splash of freshly squeezed juice and a dash of bitters (I love spicy bitters if they have them!), or add a squeeze of an Apothékary herbal tincture that you bring with you.

👀 What to look out for when purchasing products:

The biggest issue currently with the non-alcoholic drink space is that many of the products have ingredients I don’t want to consume, which often include:

1. “Natural flavors” that aren’t disclosed

2. Unnatural colorings (like caramel color in Ritual products 🙁)

3. Too much sugar

4. Non-organic, which means you’re getting pesticides with your cocktail and the sourcing hurts planetary biodiversity… no thanks.

3️⃣ I feel more in integrity with my personal goals and values

It is one of my values to respect my body, live a healthy life, protect my precious organs like my brain and liver, be emotionally stable for myself and those around me, and do whatever I can to improve my chances of fertility and a healthy pregnancy and baby. Alcohol has a known negative impact on all of those things, so not drinking alcohol makes me feel like I’m living in a way that is more aligned with my goals, which feels GREAT. 

It is also important to me to be able to “prove” to myself that I am not addicted to substances (like alcohol, sugar, caffeine, drugs, social media, etc.), and so this experience of eliminating alcohol and finally being past craving it checks one thing off that list. (The same way that not using social media for months at a time - like I did when I was writing my book last year - helps me remember that I can live just fine - better, in fact - without social media.) 

4️⃣  My liver function tests have improved over 20% 📉

I get my labs done every few months with Function Health and Next Health, and there was a subtle but real improvement in my AST and ALT (over 20% drop in each!), which are two key liver function tests:

Below is a passage from Good Energy discussing why these two tests are so valuable to track:

AST and ALT are proteins made in liver cells that can be released into circulation when liver cells die or become damaged. One of the key ways that liver cells can become dysfunctional is via insulin resistance and alcohol use. So, elevated AST and ALT are associated with an increased risk of fatty liver and metabolic disease.

The liver could not be more important to our overall metabolism and long-term health. It is the first site of nutrient delivery from the intestines after we eat and it determines how the body will process and use energy. The liver is a master balancer of blood sugar levels by having the skills to break down glucose, store glucose, and make glucose from other substrates, like fat. It creates bile to help break down food in the gut, so we can absorb critical micro- and macronutrients necessary for metabolism and mitochondrial function. It packages and exports fats and cholesterol to other parts of the body for storage or use. It also receives fats and cholesterol from the bloodstream to process them. As we’ve learned, when the liver becomes overburdened and damaged, it will store fat inside its cells, creating fatty liver disease—a toxic and preventable process now affecting close to 50 percent of U.S. adults. Modern life is decimating this key metabolic organ.

Ranges:

• Range considered “normal” by standard criteria: The Mayo Clinic states that normal ALT is 7 to 55 U/L and AST is 8 to 48 U/L.

• Optimal range: Research suggests that all-cause mortality starkly increases when AST and ALT levels rise above about 17 U/L.

For more on my optimal ranges for key lab tests, purchase Good Energy.

5️⃣ We eat more at home 🏡 

I’ve realized that going out to a nice restaurant excited me a lot in the past in part because of the potential to have wine or a cocktail. Without that allure of  “a fun drink,”  I’m less enthused to go out to new restaurants. Which frankly, is a good thing, because at 36 years old, I’m in a phase of life where I want to stay in and cook more, because when I host I can make sure the ingredients are all clean, organic, and no industrial seed oils. 

The caveat to this is that I get very excited if I see that a restaurant has an extensive mocktail menu, like Birdie G’s in Santa Monica! These additions to menus are becoming much more common!

6️⃣ I feel more creative 🎨

While it is subtle, I feel that my brain is having an easier time synthesizing concepts and ideas, and this feels amazing. I’ve done more writing, meditating, and painting this year than I have previously, and although that’s correlation with my no-alcohol journey - not causation - it’s been great. Perhaps the propensity to do more art is also related to having more energy at night to play since we aren’t drinking with dinner and getting tired!

7️⃣  Not drinking alcohol has had no negative impact on my social life 💃

There have been zero negative social repercussions from not drinking alcohol. I feel more joyful and happy than ever. Since stopping drinking, I have been to EDM concerts (hi Kygo and Illenium!), gone on a tropical vacation, been at weddings, celebrated birthdays and holidays, hosted parties, and gone to fun parties, and it’s all been just as fun, or even more fun, without the alcohol. I will admit, there have been moments where I’ve thought that a drink would “loosen me up,” but letting this feeling pass has been positive.

This period of not drinking alcohol has showed me that no one really cares if you drink or not, and that so many people are also on their “reducing or eliminating alcohol” journey and often very appreciative of you not drinking because it gives THEM permission to not drink. Additionally, it has been a positive journey for me and my partner, as we have been on this alcohol-free journey of exploration together!

8️⃣ No hangovers, ever.

Enough said. No one wants a hangover.

🕺 Additions from my boyfriend 😍👇️ 

My partner adds that he thinks eliminating alcohol has had a positive impact on his sleep, has caused him to have more dreams that he remembers, and has let him feel more emotionally balanced in stressful situations. All wins!!

5 ways that stopping alcohol has NOT changed my life:

1️⃣ I have lost no weight  ⚖️

Well darn 😆 … I thought that stopping drinking might make me instantly feel more toned and lean or reduce any puffiness I feel some mornings, but alas, it has had zero impact on those things. For me, food, exercise, and sleep seem to make the biggest impact on my body composition and weight fluctuations, and where I am in my monthly cycle has the biggest impact on water retention (aka “puffiness”).

2️⃣ My biomarkers for sleep, heart rate variability, and resting heart rate haven’t change much 🫀

My deep sleep percentage, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability have not changed much at all, even though the research shows that alcohol can negatively impact each of these. Read my past newsletter to learn more about what these biomarkers mean! I would have loved to see my HRV shoot up, but it seems that the amount of alcohol I was drinking wasn’t a major determinant of HRV for me.

3️⃣ My energy hasn’t changed a lot 🔋

I had good energy before stopping drinking, and it’s still good. If anything, my energy took a hit during my book tour, which probably had more to do with travel, excess caffeine, stress, and erratic sleep due to time zone changes and deadlines.  After my book launch, I also stopped drinking coffee in favor of Pique Nandaka and Matcha, which are much lower caffeine and more supportive of women’s hormones, and this - along with less stress - has improved my energy levels (I don’t get the afternoon “crash” as much, which is a godsend).

4️⃣ It hasn’t saved us as much money as expected  💸

The reality is that many of the non-alcoholic alternative products on the market are not cheap, so I think abstaining from alcohol hasn’t had a huge impact on total costs. While I used to drink alcohol maybe 2-3 nights per week, I now drink mocktails or non-alcoholic alternatives every day, so the cost is probably comparable over the long run.

With that said, we aren’t purchasing bottles of wine, champagne, beer, and spirits any more, which can run up a big bill over time!

5️⃣ My immunity hasn’t skyrocketed; I still get the occasional cold 🤧 

It’s known that alcohol is an intense immunosuppressant, but I’ve unfortunately still succumbed to a few colds over the last 8 months, despite no alcohol. I got a bug after my book tour that took me down for a few days, and I recently had a bout of COVID. Both were pretty mild, but I wouldn’t say that being alcohol-free has “cured” me of being taken down by the occasional virus. 🦠 

Sending you good energy! 💓

Dr. Casey

👀 In Case You Missed It

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🎙️ New Whole New Level Podcast with Dr. David Perlmutter

In this podcast, Dr. David Perlmutter and I discuss the problems with high uric acid, the foods and drinks that can lead to higher levels, why uric acid can be a driver of worsened brain health, and concerns regarding leaky gut and the immune system.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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