cpetropo

Can anyone tell me if they've had any experiences with an A in recovery that substitutes O'Douls or other non-alcoholic beer where they used to drink "regular" beer. A friend of mine's husband quit drinking regular beer 2 years ago. But drinks a 6 pack of O'doul's every day. She thinks it works grear for him. But I on the other hand have my doubts.

Has anyone tried this or have any insight on this ?

doorknob

NA Beer has about the same trace alcohol content as orange juice, but can still be a strong psychological trigger for many people.

cpetropo

That's kind of what I thought. My boyfriend has implemented NA Beer in his new road to sobriety. He is convinced that this will work as "he likes the taste of beer", and it has allowed him to still "hang out with the boys" - But I am still weary of the outcome......But at the same time I am Proud of him, as he's been sober for 16 days today(can you still call it sober - drinking NA Beer?)

doorknob

I don't see why not.

Astro

I tried a few times to substitute NA beer to help me quit drinking, but every time I'd end up back on the hard stuff after the mental obsession overwhelmed me. Maybe it'll work for your boyfriend, but in sobriety it's not something I'd care to try again. Even NA wine has a tiny amount of alcohol present, so my decision has been to avoid inducing alcohol completely, including mouthwash.

queenteree

Just a word of advice - my AH drank O'Douls a few times a year (at holidays or BBQ's) during all of his sober years, with absolutely no problems and no relapses. Now, when he tells me he quitting drinking, he brings home a 6 of O'Douls with one already open to mask the smell of real beer on his breath and thinks I'm too stupid to realize he's drunk.

CatsTail

Myself I wouldn't take the chance on drinking it as it could trigger me to real beer. Maybe some people can drink it I don't know. It's not non-alcoholic there is still .5% alcohol in a bottle.

I know people who do drink on a regular basis and I guess I wouldn't want their recovery.

Ngaire

HolyQow

I have suggested that to AH many times, because his excuse is that he "just likes beer".....

well he flat out refuses, and my guess is that non-alcoholic anything will not ever get him away from whatever it is that he is not dealing with.

elizabeth1979

This topic always is interesting. My alltime favorite reply is from NoMoBeer:

doorknob

Food Alcohol Project

The Food Alcohol Project has two areas of investigation. First, pharmacological research is measuring levels of ethanol and methanol in non-alcoholic foods, beverages and medicines. Over 350 non-alcoholic foods, beverages and medicines have been analyzed. Most contain low levels of alcohol. A summary is available via email to Pubs (at) treatAT.org

The alcohol-free diet continues to be developed, based on A-T family reports that avoidance of all alcohols appears to help neurological functioning (better balance, clearer speech, less tremor).

Development of potential dietary management strategies include identification of antagonistic foods and chemical compounds that appear to be harmful.

Secondly, the Food Alcohol Project is investigating the effects of these low levels of alcohol on performance. Baseline research has investigated the effects of alcohol in non-alcoholic beverages (a bottled non-alcoholic fruit juice beverage) in normal children, compared to alcohol-free non-alcoholic beverages (a flavored drink reconstituted from a powder). Results of this study can be accessed by abstract at Unintentional Ethanol Consumption: Acute Effects on Blood Alcohol Levels and Performance in Children, or contact TreatAT.


Patrick's Alcohol-free Eating

1. No WET or MOIST drinks, foods or medicines with any of the following:

· natural flavors

· artificial flavors

· corn syrup

· vanilla or vanillin

· any extract

unless noted as "OK" on which means that specific product has been tested.

For details about other Products that have been tested for the presence of alcohols, contact Pubs (at) TreatAT.org

Exceptions

If a food or drink is completely dry, it will be OK – a dry food cannot retain alcohol. Examples: cookies that snap (vanilla wafer not thin mint), candy that is hard (Munch Bar not Almond Joy).

If the food or drink was made with dry ingredients + an acceptable liquid (e.g. water, rice milk), it’s OK because, again.

Examples: Jello made from a power – not store-bought lunch cups, chocolate milk from a powder.

2. No WET OR MOIST (liquid or chewy) medicines, herbal extracts or toothpastes sweetened with sorbitol or that contain alcohol, natural or artificial flavors or extracts. Non-alcoholic does not mean alcohol-free; choose capsules or powders.

3. Limit foods with naturally-occurring sorbitol, unless on therapeutic doses of inositol (pears, apricots, plums, peaches; pumpkin-type vegetables, sweet potatoes). Inositol counteracts sorbitol in the body.

4. OK Drinks:

· Plain water

· Rice Milk (sub for milk in almost any recipe)

· Drinks made from dry powders such as Kool-Aid

· Other "OK" canned or bottled drinks that have been specifically tested & found alcohol-free:

o Mug Root Beer

o Cherry Coke

o Citra

o Gatorade Frost Alpine Snow

o Nestea Natural Lemon Flavor

o Country Time Lemonade (can

o Gerber White Grape Juice

o Gerber White Grape Juice fr conc

o Tropicana Grapefruit Juice fr conc

o V-8 100% Vegetable Juice (can)

o Rice Dream Organic Original Rice Milk

5. Other OK foods & snacks that specifically tested alcohol-free:

· Marshmallows - Jet Puffed - Favorite Brands International Inc.

· Ghirardelli MINT Chocolate Bar (plain not the filled one)

· Snickers Munch Bar

· McDonalds chocolate soft ice cream cones

· Haagen Daas Chocolate Ice Cream

· German Sweet Chocolate Bar (in baking section, but sweet)

· Ba-tampte Brand Garlic Dill Pickles

· Whole Foods Tangy Barbeque Sauce
Diestel brand sliced turkey (available @ Whole Foods)

· Jones Brand Golden Light Sausage Links

· Betty Crocker White Fluffy Frosting Mix (box)

· Baker's Sweet German Chocolate (Bar)

· Spectrum Canola Mayonnaise

· Shelton Turkey Hot Dogs (frozen)

5. Condiments:
Unfortunately, alcohol is in the vinegars and natural flavors that flavor many condiments. Condiment substitutions (acceptable brands) are listed on the following page. Major -brand Catsup has trace levels of alcohol.

6. Naturally occurring alcohols:
Some foods have naturally occurring alcohols, including honey.

7. Jellies and jams: Ethanol has been found in the headspace of some of the more expensive "all natural fruit juice" jellies. Over time, pectin reacts with the sugar in fruit juices to form alcohol. At this point, all jellies tested have alcohol. In general avoid all jellies with fruit juice added.

HolyQow

When AH says "it's only beer"....

my reply is: "if you were a drug addict, would it be okay to have just a little bit of drugs?"

StandingStrong

This topic tends to be brought up quite often. For more thoughts, you can do a search on the topic using the search feature at the top of the page.

From my own experiences, I can only tell you that the non-alcoholic beverages never hold true. The A eventually just gives in to the real deal, or he uses the NA beer to hide the smell and or usage of the real stuff.
My xAH used the fake stuff for awhile, but then it became a cover-up to the real stuff.

Personally, I understand the rationalizing of using the near-beer, but I wouldn't recommend it as I don't see that it's a fix to the problem. Nor do I believe that it's a good substitute or idea. It's simply a temporary bandaid for the problem and used as a cover up of the wound.
Just my opinion.

embraced2000

na beer....just another form of denial for the alcoholic....imo....

Time2Surrender

Whats the point? Kinda like smoking cigarettes thru a crack pipe or snorting baking soda. Just doesnt seem like anything good can come from it.

embraced2000

alcoholic drinking na beer, in my case with xah, was just another way of staying in his stinking thinking....see, i'm drinking this chit cause i don't really have a problem.....see what i'm doing to appease you.....see, i can take it or leave it....what's the problem with everyone....they're all trying to control me....hey, it cost the same as regular beer, so i may as well drink the real stuff....i only have one life, i'm gonna live it like i want.....screw ya ll!!!!!! i'm sick of trying to please everyone else......groooooaaaaannnnnn!!!!!!!

then the fun would began.

it's all a mind set thing, imo......if they are still "pretending" to drink, they are still wanting to drink.....thus, no psychic or spiritual change. they still have the crappy attitude and behaviors. just in my experience.

love to all
jeri

Krys_wyo

The first few months of sobriety are hard, I drank na for about 3 months off and on and now im on 6 months and havent even wanted a na...it helped alot it was like weening myself.
I havent had or even wanted a na in a long time and everyone has their and is entitled to their own opinion but do WHAT helps you!!!

I didnt still want to drink i was helping myself NOT to drink!!!

mike_mass

I drank beer for the effect it produced. It was almost ritualistic...buying it, settling down to drink it, the initial buzz, progressively getting drunker, etc. I think a switch to non-alcoholic beer would be an attempt on my part to hang on to the past ritual, thereby retaining some foothold on a bygone era when drinking was fun. That time is long past.

Pick-a-name

This topic comes up regularily,especially over on the "Alcoholism" forum. From all I have heard (and seen with AH) it is usually just another one of the A's attempt to "control" their drinking. An alcoholic ultimately drinks for the EFFECT........so usually this is just another slippery slope back to alcohol (like a geographic change,new job,new relationship,etc.) JMHO

iwillriseabove

Elizabeth, I love what you posted from NoMoBeer! Priceless! I think it is absolutely the truth. I think every A knows that NA beer has trace amounts of alcohol in it. Maybe they hope if they drink enough of it, it will produce a buzz.

And Queenteree... That would be what I would fear my AH would do. And, like you, I don't need to smell it on him to know that he is drunk...

gelfling

It's a delusional drink for a person who is deluding themselves. They gain a cockey attitude that if they can control themselves by drinking "only" 6 O'Douls a day, they can do the same with beer.