When you examine a soda can or a granola bar wrapper, you expect to find out what its ingredients are, and to learn about any relevant allergens or other health risks.
But a new review out of the WHO (full report here) says that alcohol labeling requirements across the European continent are inconsistent, don’t meet WHO recommendations, and are not well-monitored.
The recommendation resulting from the report was pretty straightforward: make it mandatory, rather than voluntary, for alcoholic beverage companies to label their products with ingredients, nutritional information and health risks. It turns out, unsurprisingly, voluntary labeling tends to be of inconsistent quality and is hard to enforce. The most important risks the WHO called out in the policy recommendation as good ideas for labels were warnings against drinking and driving, harm to minors from drinking, and harm to pregnant women.
All of that makes sense, and those do seem like some important risks to mention. But reading the article sparked an idea for us: what if we could mentally re-label alcohol such that every time we look at it, we remember the risks and downsides we’ve personally seen from heavy drinking?
As a mental exercise: how would you re-label alcohol to remind yourself or spread awareness to others of the negative effects it’s had on your life? Here are some of our ideas for warning labels we thought of based on our experiences and the experiences of our friends:
May worsen self-esteem with repeated use
May create new lows in terms of ‘most embarrassing moments’
May cause regrettable decisions in your sex life
May ruin relationships with close friends or family
May cause you to spend tomorrow in a foggy mental haze, unable to do anything right
If you consume this product to excess, you run a reasonable chance of awakening in a puddle of your own vomit
May ruin your enjoyment of other things in life
May cause dangerous and stupid altercations with strangers
It’s a helpful mental trick to look differently at a previously tempting bottle or can. You know what the effects tend to be for you; why not remind yourself before drinking?
If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.
