Dry January, or ditching booze the entire first month of the year, is expected to be bigger than ever. One in 5 people who drink alcohol in the UK said they were planning to take part. That's according to Alcohol Change UK.

Dr. Richard Piper, the CEO of Alcohol Change UK, explains the benefits of going alcohol-free for a month.

“I mean, the first thing to be very clear about is it needs to be the start of a journey, not just something on its own and then back to normal. The first benefits, I think, are immediate and physical. Your skin will improve. You will save money. You'll have more energy. You'll be sleeping better. Second group of benefits are on your inside. So you won't know this, but your liver will have started to repair, even the cancer-related proteins in your blood, the alcohol-related cancer proteins will have started to reduce. And your blood pressure will have dropped. So just after 31 days, your physical health will improve. Then your mood and your mental health will also start to improve. People talk about suddenly feeling really present in the world and being able to be much sharper, much clearer, much more focused. And then finally, there's a group of benefits for the long term, because by doing Dry January, you learn the benefits, but also you learn the difficulties. You learn the challenges. You learn your associations with alcohol and you learn how to beat them.”

Richard says if you slip up and have a drink during Dry January, you shouldn't beat yourself up.

“What you're trying to do with try January, really, what you're really trying to do is learn. So, if you find yourself you've had a drink, you really don't want to beat yourself up about that, because actually what you want to be doing is reflecting on what happened. Was it... It was Jim. Jim, whenever I'm with Jim. Or the time of day? Or it was a particular stress. If you can work out what those triggers are, you've had a successful Dry January, a really successful Dry January. So, you learn that you feel so much better. You learn that you don't need alcohol to have fun, to go out, to relax. And this is incredible learning and this is learning that will last you a lifetime. And that's why the supported version of Dry January is so important, because you don't get all that if you just kind of do it on your own.”

Richard explains how to cope in social situations without drinking.

“For me, the key here is that is one of our associations. We associate drinking with fun. And in particular, the drink that we're drinking has to contain alcohol, we think, to have fun. And it turns out it just isn't true. It's a lie, really. It's been sold to us, but it's not true. The reality is you can go out with friends and have as much fun, if not more fun, without the alcohol in your drinks. There is a massive boom in alcohol-free drinks at the moment and with good reason. They taste fabulous. You feel that you're treating yourself. You can have a really good evening out, but you haven't got that sort of 9.30pm when people start slurring, people start shouting, people start repeating their stories. You actually get quality of conversation all through the evening and the next morning you remember all of it.”

The nonalcoholic (NA) beer category has seen major growth during the coronavirus pandemic, despite news early on that alcohol consumption jumped.

Connecticut-based Athletic Brewing Co. produces only NA beer and has announced a commanding list of its high-profile backers. It includes pro football stars J.J. Watt and Justin Tuck, Momofuku founder David Chang, and bicycling legend Lance Armstrong, as well as Tom’s Shoes LLC founder Blake Mycoskie.

Athletic’s sales grew about 500% in 2020 compared with the previous year, from $2.5 million to about $15 million in revenue. Last year the overall nonalcoholic beer market grew almost 39%, to around $187 million, according to the market research company IRI.

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