Beer, wine and even spirits 0.0. Soft drinks are becoming increasingly popular, even among young people: thanks to their accessibility and the growing number of brands on supermarket shelves. But what will this new fashion entail?
The Istituto Superiore di Sanità has found how digital aperitifs and home delivery have changed the way Italians drink during lockdowns. A very worrying situation for the very young, the elderly and women. But falling back on the non-alcoholic versions does not seem to be a really healthy choice. Here because.
A rapidly expanding market
A few years ago, non-alcoholic beers and wine were a rarity. And what was available was quite heinous. “Today the market is booming and you can order a pint of non-alcoholic Ipa with all its rich hops, or a glass of de-alcoholic merlot that tastes like wine, not grape juice”, writes the doctor. Ali Hill, head of the course in Applied Human Nutrition at the University of Solent, on The Conversation.
“Given the negative effect alcohol can have on health, particularly in the long term, non-alcoholic beer and wine are certainly healthier options. But does that mean they make you feel good?” Not really. “A pint of non-alcoholic beer contains one and a half teaspoons of free sugars, a quarter of the recommended maximum in a single glass. If you finish a bottle of non-alcoholic chardonnay, you’ve drunk eight teaspoons.” And in some cases, it may even be more than its alcoholic alternative. “As with soft drinks, in non-alcoholic beers and dealcoholised wine the sugar content varies from product to product. A glass of lemonade contains about two teaspoons of free sugar, while the same amount of cola is closer to five.”
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But there are also those who make it an issue that goes well beyond the line. A new article from the Menzies School of Health Research and the George Institute for Global Health raises questions as to whether these drinks could give young people one more reason to approach alcohol.
“The alcohol industry often promotes soft drinks as suitable for consumption while driving, while exercising in the gym and even during pregnancy. And we do not know the potential for impact on children who see their parents drinking behind the wheel as it is unlikely. that can distinguish between a zero alcohol beer and a normally alcoholic one “.
Packaged in the same way for ease of passage
As the researcher recalls Mia Miller, “Zero alcohol drinks are often packaged identically to alcoholic ones and can be indistinguishable even in taste. Their free sale in supermarkets means that young people will be more frequently exposed to the brand and logos of alcohol companies. And l ‘exposure to alcohol advertising has been shown to lead to early and increased alcohol consumption.’ Just think of the bottles of alcohol free sparkling wine made especially for children’s parties or the bottles in the shape of a bottle of beer and the non-alcoholic cocktails of the children’s menus made to resemble in all respects “those of the grown-ups”.
Researchers do not yet know what impact the consumption of soft drinks in childhood will have on subsequent alcohol consumption but, according to Miller, “more research is needed to assess whether the ease of availability of zero-alcohol beverages can lead to an” effect. gateway “, where children who consume them may be more likely to consume alcoholic beverages when they grow up. A longitudinal research in the field of alcohol, similar to that of tobacco research, is therefore appropriate to determine whether young people are buying them and whether their use has implications for early initiation of alcohol use. And considerable efforts will also be needed to inform policies governing the availability and marketing of these beverages, as the cultural myth can perpetuate with unregulated use that drinking is part of social conformity “.
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All this even more today, veterans of a pandemic that has led to an uncontrolled increase in alcohol consumption in Italy. This is stated by the ISS in the 2021 Report on the monitoring of alcoholic beverages in the Regions, showing that the e-commerce of beverages had a surge in 2020 between 181 and 250%: “The supply of alcoholic beverages has not known pauses in the period of the lockdown, on the contrary: the market has strengthened new alternative and even less controlled channels, in relation to the ban on the sale to minors “, also changing” the habits of Italians “. And to think that already in the period before the pandemic, alcohol was one of the most fearful factors of risk and disease for about 8 and a half million consumers defined at risk, including over 2.7 million elderly and 4 million binge. drinkers, those who gorge on alcohol and drink 5 or more alcoholic beverages, cocktails, beer, wine, spirits in a short amount of time, resulting in an immediate intoxication. A habit that, according to the Drinkaware Barometer survey, has grown by 36% compared to the pre-Covid period.
Young people, vulnerable target
“Young people are a target population extremely vulnerable to the risks associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages – they recall Emanuele Scafato and Rosaria Russo of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità – risks often assumed unconsciously and increasingly influenced by social, media, advertising and family pressures. Alcohol, unlike the other main risk factors, enjoys a social acceptance and a familiarity and popularity linked to the Italian culture of drinking, a Mediterranean culture, which, until a decade ago, placed the consumption of wine as a component inseparable from food. Today it can be said without a shadow of a doubt that, in the face of changed habits and patterns of consumption and the wider availability and offer of alcoholic beverages, young people (and often also adults and among them women in particular) have adopted models of consumption that separating drinking from the rituality of meals have transformed the original meaning of drinking into a behavioral value mainly linked to the use of alcohol according to the effects it is able to exert on personal performance “. when they are children, the harm and risks associated with alcohol are fundamental – they conclude – to begin with this type of discourse in adolescence, when everything is subject to criticism and identified by young people as the result of parental exaggeration, can obtain the opposite effect to that desired.
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