Public Health England (PHE) and the alcohol education charity Drinkaware have together launched a campaign ‘Drink Free Days’ to help cut down the amount of alcohol intake among regular drinkers.
The campaign comes in light of new findings from a YouGov poll which showed that 1 in 5 adults in the United Kingdom are drinking above the Chief Medical Officer’s low-risk drinking guidelines. Moreover, more than two-thirds of them said cutting down on drinking was much harder than to make any lifestyle change including diet, exercise and smoking cessation.
The campaign urges middle-aged drinkers to take more days off from drinking in a bid to lower their alcohol-related health risks. Excessive drinking has been linked to several serious health conditions including high BP, heart disease and 7 types of cancer. Regular drinking also adds up extra calories thereby contributing to weight gain and obesity.
Using simple and easy ways to help people modify their behaviour is the most effective, according to behavioural science, and the ‘Drink Free Days’ campaign is a good example of it.
