I'm taking a couple of days off... drink

The British Government has always had a nanny-ish instinct, leading the world in Health and Safety best practice etc. The British Government has been actively and effectively encouraging its citizens to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables (the long-running Five a Day campaign) which at least has resulted in fruit and veg being the most widely wasted food among Brits (in Poland it's bread - see this post). 

Nanny State has been warning Britons of the dangers of alcohol since Victorian times. You're never more than a few days away from a new alcohol scare story in the British media (drunk woman under train video; alcohol abuse rising fastest in over-70s; liver disease epidemic in North-East). The cost of treating alcohol-related illness (and indeed social costs of alcohol-related misbehaviour) is evidently worrying the cash-strapped governments.

Now, a report by a group of Members of Parliament is urging that Brits (and by implication all other human beings with livers) cut out all alcohol consumption for two days of each and every week. (Full report here.) This is an interesting development, following on from a story that staying off booze for a month in the New Year is futile. (I don't see the science behind this one.) Given that for the past two decades I've cut out alcohol entirely over the six-and-half-week course of Lent, I read both stories with great interest. 

Given that I never binge-drink (disliking the spinning-head sensation), the question in my case is rather one of the daily tipple - typically two or three glasses of red wine. This does put me within the limits set out in the British Government's 1995 guidelines - three to four units of alcohol per day, 21 to 28 a week, for a man. And quitting for one-eighth of a year, every year, I would argue is eminently healthy. But the two-days off regimen may be useful towards my long-term goal of keeping happy, healthy and active well into very old age. And so from tonight I shall resolve of avoiding alcohol for two days a week (outside of Lent) and seven days a week (within it). 

In essence, this means not opening a bottle of red wine every other day/every third day, so a modest saving of around 100 zlotys a month will accompany the health benefits. 

This time last year:
Depopulating Polish cities? 

This time two years ago:
Powiśle on a winter's morning 

This time three years ago:
Sunny, snowy Jeziorki 

This time four years ago:
Eddie's giant soap bubble