dave47

I went shopping with the kids yesterday for a small buffet that we were having to see in the new year. I had to buy a bottle of wine for my wife and in the drinks section i noticed some alcohol free beer. What's stopped me buying them up to now is that when i've tried them in the past it has led to the real thing and also that even if there is a fraction of a percentage of alcohol, it is still alcohol. However i noticed a premium lager which i used to buy but this said 0.00% alcohol, should i get some to see in the new year as a one off? As we were about to go to the checkout i told the kids to wait and i went back to get some. For some strange reason i thought of the beautiful witch in Snow White disguised as an old woman, and then myself clinking glasses that evening-i bought some energy drink instead. It's as though it was a trick and thankfully it didn't work. I would just like to say that if any of you drink alcohol free booze then i think you are taking a risk. I would have been all right last night i am sure but the seeds would have been planted.

lostmdboy

I have been down that road too. For me I can not do it. For me there are just to many other things to drink. I guess you have to look at your motives very hard, and see why you want to drink it.

December15

I think this must be an individual thing. Drinking NA beer has never made me feel like a real beer in the same way that drinking decaffinated coffee doesn't leave me craving real coffee. Still I guess everyone is different.

RK2007

I've tried alcohol free stuff and for me it leads to the real thing too so I avoid it now as well...

Decaf is different, I get get hyper on normal coffee so much that I can't drink it any more but decaf is like the real thing for me so I can enjoy coffee without the side-effects...

Rusty Zipper

one does'nt go to a whhore house to listen to the piano player...

trakin

When I was shopping last week for a party I noticed a wine-bottle-shaped non-alchoholic beverage. It was called "12." Tagline: "So good you can drink it from noon till midnight."

I thought, Oh, give me a break! How transparent is that?! How irritating! Of course they're marketing this product to alcoholics. How difficult is it to make the connection "12"..."12 _STEPS_". Duh!!!

Just before I stormed indignantly away, muttering something under my breath about shameless opportunistic capitalists.....I grabbed the bottle and put it in my cart.

Yeah...well...sneer at my weakness if you will, but better to fall for a marketing ploy than to just plain.. fall.

The stuff wasn't half bad. I won't make it a practice of buying things like that, but it was nice over the holidays. Didn't make me think more about drinking actual wine than I already was anyway.

NoelleR

"...It was called "12." Tagline: "So good you can drink it from noon till midnight.

I thought, Oh, give me a break! How transparent is that?! How irritating! Of course they're marketing this product to alcoholics. How difficult is it to make the connection "12"..."12 _STEPS_". Duh!!!..."

Gee, that kinda sounds like paranoid, alcoholic (in early recovery) thinking to me...Of course (?) they're marketing this product to alcoholics?...Gosh, maybe I'm not an alcoholic then....my first thought was, "So good you can drink it from noon till midnight...well, yeh, 'from noon to midnight, that's 12 hours....hence the name '12'...."

I'm not getting into the argument over alcohol content in non-alcoholic, de-alcoholized drinks vs alcohol content in many foods/drinks naturally. I will say that since I first started out in recovery, I have occasionally had one of these 'beers/wines' with my meals.....I like the taste; it's a nice change of pace. In fact, I just bought a fresh 6-pack for my frig (St. Paulie NA--NEVER American--yuckie).....my last one, with 3 still left, was over 2 years old. Drinking these has never been the 'slippery slope' others seem to say they are for them, or think they will be for others.

....and decaffeinated coffee....? not for me; coffee contains over 400 chemicals important to the taste and aroma of the final drink and the decaffeination process unfortunately removes many of these too, thus changing the taste....I'll stick to my original French Market Coffee, with all its original chemicals and chicory, and caffeine, and taste....tyvm...... (o:

Now, before someone jumps on the bandwagon with their oppinions (like you're not really sober if you drink these, or you're just a relapse waiting to happen if you risk one of these.....etc.), let my just say that all the above are just my oppinions, and mine alone, for me. Far be it from me to tell someone else what they may or may not do in recovery, or even define sober, recovery, recovering, recovered.....etc. for anybody else but me. I rightfully respect others oppinions, and their right to have them, but I have never let the oppinions of others define my life.....and I wouldn't want to try to do that to anyone either.....


In Recovery.....Recovered,

NoelleR
DOS: 6/23/86

trakin

[QUOTE=NoelleR;1621868
..."Gee, that kinda sounds like paranoid, alcoholic (in early recovery) thinking to me...Of course (?) they're marketing this product to alcoholics?...Gosh, maybe I'm not an alcoholic then....my first thought was, "So good you can drink it from noon till midnight...well, yeh, 'from noon to midnight, that's 12 hours....hence the name '12'....")

Noelle,
You are so right on! It _IS_ alcoholic-in-early-recovery thinking!!! Because that's what I am. Totally!!! I admit that 100%.

And I did get the obvious reference to the hours of the day....but I couldn't help making the other connection too...considering where my head is at right now....

But I didn't mean to sound paranoid....did I sound paranoid? I didn't mean to. I was just more or less wryly amused by the choice of name for that particular brand. Sorry if it sounded like I was actually angry about it....I'm definitely not.

Jersey Nonny

Well, Noelle, you "said" a mouthful; and, I'm with Voltaire on this one:

Quote:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I don't believe there's any such animal as "alcohol free booze"; but, since I drank for effect, rather than taste, I personally wouldn't be bothered. A twist on Rusty's sentiment...I know enough not to play on the railroad tracks, if I don't want to get hit by the train! My 28 years in recovery has taught me we need to guard against those mental tricks the disease will play on us.

stone

I dont see whats paranoid about making the 12-step connection with the name '12'. I am sure the marketing people are well aware of it.

Anyhoo, did any of us drink for the taste? LOL

mike_mass

I think you can do it...just be careful.

nandm

Many similiar threads have been started on this topic. It seems that there always seem to be two groups of thought on it.

* Those that believe there is nothing wrong with it. That technically, there is not really any alcohol in it. That it is not a threat to their sanity or sobriety.

* Those that choose not to risk their sobriety by drinking it. Believe that since the bottle clearly states there is alcohol in it that there is.

My thoughts fall somewhere between. I am pretty much a to each his own believer on the topic. For me personally, I don't see the point in drinking it. I drank to get drunk, so giving me a non-alcohol drink is a waste and pointless. I choose not to tempt my taste buds by reminding them what alcohol containing products taste like. It is not worth my sobriety to me so I choose not to drink it. I do not judge others for drinking it though. One thing I do consider in my choice not to drink is that several people I know who relapsed say their relapse started with drinking non-alcoholic drinks, which in their eyes made it easier for them to progress to justifying just one drink which for an alcoholic is a death sentance to sobriety.

trakin

Not to belabor this topic, but...it is interesting -- especially for someone like me who is new to sobriety and trying to figure things out as I go along....

Are you saying that some "non-alcoholic" beverages actually do contain small amounts of alcohol? Seriously?

The one I picked up had absolutely none....I checked the ingredient list ...it's a blend of teas and juices, and I found it in the juice isle. A web-site was listed, so I looked there also.....it was actually very interesting to see how they "pitch" it. TwelveBeverage

Anyway, as a newbie, I'll defer to the wisdom of those with more experience and stay away from things like this from now on.

Thanks for saying I'm not paranoid, Stone...I've already got enough flaws on my list.:rof

stone

Pinkcuda

I've always said it was the "Preferred Beverage for People on the Fence"

curliQ

Beer was not my drink of choice when I was drinking. I do like beer but damn, it bloats and I can never drink more than one. I like the non-alcoholic beer. It does not tempt me. BUT.............if they had non-alcoholic Bacardi Select, I would ABSOLUTELY have to stay away from it. It would so be the slope for me. No, nope, I couldn't handle it.

stone

I wonder if they make alcohol free vodka?

dave47

Certainly seems to be a bit of a hot potato. I would agree totally that it is down to the individual, just for me the alarm bells were going off like crazy.

Jersey Nonny

Then, you pretty much already knew what your course of action would be, Dave...you just wanted some input, perhaps even some confirmation of your own mindset...and, that's OK. If it was any help, the general consensus seems to be against drinking so-called non-alcoholic beverages.

Lily

I can remember after I had at least 3 or 4 years clean in sober in the 90's & I bought some cuz I was hanging w/ some friends that were drinking beer. Well, I remember after like the 2nd or 3rd kind of "waiting for the buzz" to kick in cuz it tasted to me so much like the real thing. For me it is just plain old trouble......

Good thread Dave!