The Alcohol Divide – A Health and Wellbeing Series

Detail of a sculpture, attributed to Italian sculptor Francesco Carabelli, within the Milan Cathedral, Italy of two people carrying a large bunch of grapes. Photographer: Robtoz | iStock.

Detail of a sculpture, attributed to Italian sculptor Francesco Carabelli, within the Milan Cathedral, Italy. Photographer: Robtoz | iStock.

Alcohol and the Age of Awareness

By Geoffrey Williams

Briefly …

Alcohol consumption is increasingly shifting from habit to consideration. From changing health evidence and generational attitudes to questions of confidence, safety and social connection, this opening piece in The Alcohol Divide explores the evolving conversation around drinking.

Our relationships with alcohol are changing from something rarely questioned to something far more considered, shaped by changing health awareness, generational attitudes, evolving social habits, and a growing willingness to examine routines once accepted without much thought.

For some, it begins with a decision to understand the role alcohol plays in their routines, their social lives, and for solo travellers, their sense of confidence and safety in familiar and unfamiliar places. For others, it comes after a moment – blackouts in potentially dangerous and unexpected circumstances, a conversation, an accident, or a morning after that feels just slightly, or possibly dramatically, out of step. Regardless of personal circumstances, the conversation is becoming less about abstinence itself and more about awareness of habits, impacts, routines and consequences.

For solo travellers in particular, that awareness can take on a different shape. Without the usual social cues or shared expectations, decisions around drinking can often become less deliberate. A glass of wine might be about connection, or a night out might offer company or highlight its absence. In that space, drinking can become less about rules and more about paying attention to what we reach for, why we reach for it, who we are with when we do, and how it shapes the experience of travelling solo safely, confidently and well.

The global shift

The shift is no longer anecdotal. The global market for non-alcoholic wine is now measured in the billions and continues to grow at double-digit rates, even as the broader wine category softens (Grand View Research, 2024; Randolph, 2026). What sits beneath that growth is not a wholesale or reactionary move away from alcohol, but a change in how it is used. The vast majority of people choosing non-alcoholic options still drink, but they are switching between occasions rather than stepping away entirely (IWSR, 2023). That behaviour is showing up at scale. In the United States alone, tens of millions of consumers have recently moved into low- or no-alcohol drinking patterns, pointing to a shift that is cultural as much as it is commercial (PennState Extension, 2025).

Understanding high alcohol intake as a measurable health risk

High alcohol intake is now understood less as a choice and more as a measurable health risk, with effects that extend well beyond the obvious wellbeing and safety boundaries we may think we are setting for ourselves. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been clear in recent years that no level of alcohol consumption is entirely risk-free, linking it to a wide range of conditions including cardiovascular disease and neurological harm (WHO, 2023). What has sharpened the conversation is not just the breadth of those risks, but their cumulative nature – how regular drinking, even at levels once considered moderate, can quietly shape long-term health outcomes.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the brain. Research compiled by the UK Biobank and published in ‘PLoS Medicine’ found that higher alcohol consumption is associated with reduced brain volume and changes to grey and white matter, with no clear threshold at which effects begin (Topiwala et al., 2022). Complementary work from institutions such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2023), points to impacts on memory, mood regulation, and cognitive function over time, particularly with sustained or heavy use. Taken together, the evidence reframes alcohol not simply as a social lubricant, but as a substance that interacts directly and progressively with the systems we rely on to think, feel and connect.

“… the evidence reframes alcohol not simply as a social lubricant, but as a substance that interacts directly and progressively with the systems we rely on to think, feel and connect.”

As the evidence around alcohol’s health risks has sharpened, parts of the industry have shifted their language in response. Organisations such as the WHO and the OECD have noted a pattern familiar from other sectors: a move away from debating harm outright, and towards framing alcohol within ideas of “responsible drinking” and personal choice (WHO, 2023; OECD, 2021). It is a subtle but important distinction, placing greater emphasis on individual behaviour and moderation, even as the underlying health evidence becomes more difficult to contest.

At the same time, the category is adapting commercially. Major producers have invested heavily in low- and no-alcohol ranges, positioning them alongside traditional products rather than in opposition. Public health researchers, including commentary published in ‘The Lancet Global Health’ (Barlow, 2022; Monteiro, et al., 2022), and analysis from organisations such as Movendi International, have pointed to growing tension between changing public attitudes toward alcohol, expanding low- and no-alcohol markets, and the alcohol industry’s continuing efforts to shape policy, marketing, and public perception (O’Brien, et al., 2023). The result is an industry that appears to be adapting to shifting consumer expectations while continuing to defend alcohol’s place in everyday social life.

The generational shift

There are also clear generational signals shaping this shift. Younger drinkers are consistently reporting lower levels of alcohol consumption than the cohorts before them. Data from the OECD and the WHO shows a steady decline in youth drinking across many high-income countries over the past decade, with fewer young people starting to drink at all, and those who do tending to drink less frequently (OECD, 2021; WHO, 2024). What once marked a transition into adulthood is, for many, becoming a more optional choice.

This is not simply abstinence dressed up as a trend. Research from groups such as Gallup and the NIAAA suggests younger consumers are more likely to move between drinking and not drinking depending on context, health priorities, and social setting (Gallup, 2023; NIAAA, 2025). Alcohol is still present, but it no longer holds the same default position. In its place is a more fluid relationship – one that aligns closely with the rise of low- and no-alcohol options, and with a broader willingness to question habits that previous generations may have taken for granted.

Alcohol and personal safety

Alcohol’s effect on decision making is not simply about lowered inhibition, it changes how risk is perceived in the moment. Public safety and clinical research consistently show that even moderate intoxication can slow our reaction times, reduce coordination, and distort our judgement, leading to increased risk-taking behaviour and poorer situational awareness (Royal Life Saving Australia, 2021). In practical terms, that might mean overestimating our ability to navigate a city at night, swim safely, or assess a developing situation – small miscalculations that carry significantly more weight when travelling alone.

“Public safety and clinical research consistently show that even moderate intoxication can slow reaction time, reduce coordination, and distort judgement, leading to increased risk-taking behaviour and poorer situational awareness.”

That distortion becomes more pronounced in environmental extremes. In cold conditions, alcohol can create a false sense of warmth while actually lowering core body temperature and dulling the body’s protective responses, increasing the risk of hypothermia (Granberg, 1991; Drinkaware, 2024). In heat-influenced settings, our understanding of the interaction is more complex, but evidence shows that high levels of alcohol can impair behavioural responses – including hydration decisions and risk recognition – even where physiological effects are less clear (Bbosa, et al., 2026). Across both settings, the consistent thread is not just physical impact, but a shift in our perception: the environment feels manageable when it may not be, and we respond with less awareness than we realise.

“… the environment feels manageable when it may not be, and we respond with less awareness than we realise.”

What emerges is not a single position on alcohol, but a more deliberate relationship with it. Drinking is increasingly being viewed less as an unquestioned social default and more as something shaped by context, health, safety, routine, identity and awareness. For solo travellers, where unfamiliar environments can heighten our freedom and vulnerability in equal measure, those questions can become more visible. The conversation is no longer simply about alcohol itself, but about the role it continues to play in the decisions, behaviours and environments that shape our lives.

References

Barlow, P., et al. (2022). Industry influence over global alcohol policies via the World Trade Organization: a qualitative analysis of discussions on alcohol health warning labelling, 2010–19. The Lancet Global Health, 10(3).

Bbosa, G., et al. (2026). Alcohol and substance use in extreme environment temperatures exposures, neural mechanisms, coping mechanisms, substance use disorders, and increased hospital visits. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 20.

Drinkaware. (2024). Alcohol and cold weather.

Gallup. (2023). Young adults in U.S. drinking less than in prior decades.

Granberg, P. (1991). Alcohol and cold. Arctic Medical Research, 50, Suppl 6.

Grand View Research. (2024). Non-alcoholic wine market size, share and trends analysis report.

IWSR. (2023). No-alcohol share of overall alcohol market expected to grow to nearly 4% by 2027.

Monteiro, M., et al. (2022). How can we get sober from the influence of the alcohol industry? The Lancet Global Health, 10(3).

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). (2023). Alcohol and the brain: an overview.

NIAAA. (2025). Alcohol facts and statistics.

O’Brien, P., et al. (2023). Influencing the global governance of alcohol: alcohol industry views in submissions to the WHO consultation for the Alcohol Action Plan 2022–2030. International Journal of Drug Policy, 119.