Ideas for Cutting Down on Wine Drinking

Beef, lamb, and also pork contains high levels of purine, enough to make your gout flare up in just 2 days and last quite a while if you consume just a normal serving.

White meat is comparatively lower in purine content. So, having chicken on the dinner table is not as bad as having lamb chop for dinner. With that said, you must control the intake of chicken meat as well, because generally purine content in meats is higher than that of vegetables. It wouldn't hurt to occasionally indulge in pork burgers once in a blue moon.

Scallops

Scallops are another high purine food that you must avoid most of the time. Seafood is high in purine content. Try to stay away from them and resist the temptation to eat seafood salads with scallops when dining out in a fancy restaurant. If you really want to take seafood, 2-4 ounces daily is the maximum that you should limit yourself to. Otherwise, the flare ups will make you regret your decision. So smaller glasses may or may not be an option for you. That will depend on the size of your wine glasses in the first place - there's certainly been a trend here in the UK (and probably elsewhere in the world) for larger servings and where a restaurant may have previously poured half a dozen glasses from a bottle that's now often just 3 glasses. Which works well for the "buy two get the rest of the bottle free" offers but isn't as kind on your liver.

So consider using smaller glasses or merely not filling them up as full.

2. Keep a diary

If your first thought on this suggestion is "yikes" then you probably do need to keep an alcohol diary.

But if you do that, make sure that you use it as you drink. Otherwise you run the risk of putting less in your diary than you've actually drunk - maybe because you forgot, maybe because you're embarrassed at the true amount.

3. Consider drinking spritzers

Spritzers are a mix of wine and some kind of sparkling soda or mineral water.

They're surprisingly nice and can even brighten up an otherwise dull wine.

You can also get non-alcoholic spritzers if you're really cutting down on your alcohol intake.

4. Alternate your drinks

I don't mean swapping between a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot.

Alternate your drinks so that every other drink is non-alcoholic.

There are plenty of alternatives and if you used something like a sparkling water you could use the alternate drink to clean your palette, allowing yourself to appreciate your next glass of wine more.

5. Notice your drink

Pretend that every bottle you're drinking is good quality wine.

You'd treat it differently rather than slurping it down as fast as possible.

Breathe air into your mouth to help release the flavours.

Swirl the wine round your mouth in the same way as a professional wine taster would.

Savour the often subtle flavours that are in the majority of wines.

Pay attention to your wine and you'll enjoy it more even when you're drinking less of it.

6. Have an alcohol free day

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