How to

Replace your evening drink with these, and what each one saves

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 20268 sources

The evening drink is usually a habit before it’s a craving: the end of work, the kids in bed, the cork at 6pm. The easiest way to break it is to keep the moment and change what’s in the glass. Sparkling water with lime, a cold non-alcoholic beer or a cup of herbal tea all work. A 5 oz glass of wine every night is about 45,600 calories a year, and a lot of broken sleep.

Most people who want to drink less aren’t fighting a physical need. They’re fighting a cue. The glass of wine means “the day is over,” and without it the evening feels unfinished. NIAAA’s advice for this exact problem is to work out what triggers the urge, avoid it where you can, and plan something else for the times you can’t. The swap is the something else.

The swaps, with what each saves

The wine, beer, margarita and whiskey figures are NIAAA’s. Club soda has none, by USDA’s tables. Over a year, a nightly glass of wine is 125 x 365, about 45,600 calories. By NIAAA’s rule of thumb that 500 calories a day is about a pound a week, that’s roughly 13 pounds a year on paper.

The best replacements

Sparkling water, dressed up. Zero calories, and fizz is a big part of what makes a drink feel like a drink. Add citrus, a few slices of cucumber, a sprig of mint or a splash of tart juice. In a lab test, sparkling mineral water dissolved tooth enamel about a hundred times less than soft drinks did.

A non-alcoholic beer. The closest copy of the real thing, at a fraction of the alcohol and usually under half the calories. Why NA beer is booming has more.

Herbal tea. Warm, slow and a natural “end of day” signal. Pick one without caffeine. caffeine.guide has which teas are safe at night.

A walk. NIAAA suggests filling the time drinking used to take with an activity, like exercise or a hobby. A 20-minute walk after dinner fills the same slot and gets you out of the kitchen where the bottle is.

Dinner, earlier. If your glass comes out while you cook, eat a little sooner and the “while I cook” drink has less room.

Kombucha, with a caveat. Fizzy and tart, but it can contain a little alcohol, and more as it ferments in the bottle. Skip it if you need zero.

What changes when you swap

Your sleep, mostly. Across 27 studies, even about two drinks cut REM sleep, and the alcohol you drink at 9pm is usually still in your blood when you fall asleep. In 20,968 WHOOP members, a night with one drink more than usual came with a higher sleeping heart rate. Swap the nightly drink and that cost comes off every night. Tonight’s clear time shows how far your usual drinks reach into the night, and what it costs shows the money.

If the swap doesn’t stick

Some evenings the urge wins, and that’s normal. NIAAA says to try something else if one approach doesn’t work, and if two or three months of trying hasn’t changed much, to consider quitting altogether or getting help. Ways to stop or cut back has more tools, and if you can’t stop has free help.