This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi, this is Annie Grace, the author of this naked mind, Control Alcohol, Fine Freedom, Discover Happiness, Change Your Life.

I'm here today answering Rita's questions.

And today I have a question from Emma. She says, dear Annie, I've emailed you before and you know that I've already read your book twice.

I'm going to be on Audible My Car. Thanks in great part to you.

And some others I'm now on day 135 of my alcohol-free life and the vast majority of my time I'm absolutely loving it.

My life is so measurably better getting more so by the day I cannot ever see myself drinking alcohol again.

And I don't feel that I'm missing out. I feel like I've dodged a bullet and then let out of a prison.

There's just one thing that bugs me and I'd like to find closure on it so that it never comes back to bite me once the fading effect bias kicks in.

I see no value in spirits or beer to my mind. The only reason to drink them was for the buzz and I'm so over that.

However, I struggle with the idea that mine adds nothing to the whole foodie gastronomic experience.

I love eating cooking, eating out. I grow my own veg. I source local sourdough bread. I have four types of butter in the fridge so you get the picture.

For decades, I've taken it as gospel that some varieties of grape go better with certain foods, even while I was acknowledging that I was drinking too much of whatever it was.

It's all around me. I have friends who run a Michelin Sard restaurant, friends who have planted a new Zealand vineyard, run an independent wine shop in my town.

This family business is in the development of a stable of craft beers on the west coast of Scotland.

Other friends who run an Irish pub and a liquor store in Vancouver.

I've eaten some great meals invariably accompanied by either some in a recommended bottle or a flight of wine's tailored to my tasting menu.

Of course, if it was the latter, my recollection of the food would go a little hazy after this tartar.

I've drunk crap wines and I've drunk good wines and I could absolutely tell the difference.

And European humans have drunk wines from millennia. It's such a traditional thing that it must be normal, right?

Ah, I'm in a place where even if I think wine can add something to taste by some food, I'm doing it without it.

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