Reconsidering the Ritual: Alcohol & the Lavish Life

Welcome to The Lavish Well—where this week, we dismantle the most expensive myth about the good life.

THE PULSE

This is what matters this week.

There's a glass of wine in nearly every image of the good life.

The celebratory champagne. The sophisticated cocktail hour. The girls' night Sancerre. The date night cabernet.

We've woven alcohol so deeply into our definition of luxury, relaxation, and connection that questioning it feels almost... puritanical.

But here's what they're not telling you.

Alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The same category as tobacco and asbestos.

It's directly linked to at least seven types of cancer:
breast, liver, colorectal, esophageal, mouth, throat, and larynx.

And here's what makes this especially significant: two of the four most common cancers in America—breast and colorectal—are on that list.
This isn't about rare cancers. It's about the most prevalent ones.

For women specifically, even moderate drinking—one drink per day—increases breast cancer risk by 5-15%.

That glass of wine you're using to unwind? It's accelerating cellular aging.
That craft cocktail at the networking event? It's directly linked to cancer.
That "healthy" red wine for your heart? The science never actually supported that claim.

It doesn't matter if it's organic wine, small-batch whiskey, or champagne at $200 a bottle.

The ethanol molecule doesn't care about provenance.

When your body metabolizes alcohol, it produces acetaldehyde—a toxic compound that damages DNA and prevents cells from repairing that damage.

It also shifts estrogen metabolism toward more dangerous pathways, creating carcinogenic metabolites that fuel hormone-sensitive cancers. (And no, this isn't the beneficial estrogen women need in perimenopause—this is the kind that damages DNA.)

It disrupts the gut microbiome, impairs nutrient absorption, and triggers chronic inflammation.

And the aging? That's happening at the cellular level through oxidative stress and telomere shortening.

Translation: every drink you take is quite literally shortening your lifespan and accelerating how quickly your body ages.

The alcohol industry has spent billions ensuring you don't think too hard about this. And they've been remarkably successful.

Even when the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory in 2024 directly linking alcohol to seven major cancers, the media barely noticed. It was buried beneath headlines that felt more urgent, more relevant, less threatening to powerful industries.

The research is clear. The science is settled. What's missing is the conversation.

Because we've made alcohol synonymous with celebration, sophistication, and connection. To question it feels like questioning joy itself.

But you deserve the truth.

Not to shame you. Not to strip joy from your life.
But because true luxury isn't about beautiful packaging—it's about vitality that lasts.

Let's talk about what we're actually drinking to. 👇

In today's issue:

• The announcement that got one day of coverage—then vanished

• Why your "relaxation ritual" is doing the opposite of what you think

• 300 calories. 24 pounds. One year. Do the math.

• Two of the four most common cancers share one surprising risk factor

• From the Well: What the Michelin-star restaurant poured instead

THE DEEP TAKE

Where we go deeper—science, story, truth.

I live in Sonoma County—one of the most celebrated wine regions in the world.

Beautiful vineyards stretch across rolling hills. Tasting rooms dot every country road. Wine is woven into the culture here, the economy, the identity of the place itself.

I used to really enjoy wine.
It began in the 90's as a college student living in France. That's where I purchased the first bottle for my wine collection, a 1983 Bordeaux, from the backroom collection of a wine seller in Angers, France.

I studied wine, I tasted wine, I collected wine. I even seriously contemplated becoming a sommelier. But even at that, I was a “glass with dinner a few times a week” kind of drinker—nothing excessive—just what felt normal, social, even sophisticated.

I now have a collection that's gathering dust in my garage—bottles I thought I'd open on special occasions that never quite felt special enough.

Because somewhere along the way, my relationship with alcohol shifted.

It wasn't dramatic. I wasn't drinking too much.
But I started paying attention to what even moderate drinking was doing.

The sleep disruption. The next-day sluggishness that lingered even after one glass.
The way it dulled my edges when what I actually needed was sharper awareness,
not softer focus.

And I wasn't alone in this pattern.

I once had a client who came home from work stressed every single day.
Her coping mechanism? A glass of chardonnay while making dinner.

She swore it wasn't about stress management—she just loved the taste, and it helped her "arrive" into her evening and unwind with her kids.

Then she'd pour a second glass with dinner.

Her biggest complaints: Constant stress. No time to exercise. No time for self-care.
And her weight—always yo-yoing, anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds over where she wanted to be.

Here's what she didn't know:

A glass of chardonnay contains about 140 calories. Two glasses? Nearly 300 extra calories, just from wine. Do that every day, and you're looking at 2 pounds gained per month—24 pounds over a year.

But it's not just the calories.

Alcohol activates your body's stress response system—the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. While a single drink might feel relaxing in the moment, regular drinking leads to chronically elevated cortisol levels.

Your body loses its ability to regulate this potent stress hormone, which drives more weight gain, disrupts sleep, and ironically, makes you more stressed.

So that glass of wine you're using to unwind? It's actually creating a vicious biological cycle that's working against everything you want.

You're not relaxing. You're sinking further into dysregulation.

This pattern—the gap between what we think alcohol is doing and what it's actually doing—made me dig deeper.

And then came the research I couldn't unsee.

As a physician, I'd known alcohol wasn't exactly health food.
But I'd bought into the narrative we've all been sold:

Moderation is fine.
Red wine is good for your heart.
The Mediterranean lifestyle includes wine.

Except the science never actually supported the heart health claims. 
Those studies were observational—meaning they showed correlation, not causation. And subsequent research has thoroughly debunked the idea that alcohol has cardiovascular benefits.

What we're left with is this: there is no safe amount of alcohol when it comes to cancer risk.

The World Health Organization stated it plainly in 2023: "When it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health."

Let that land.

No. Safe. Amount.

And yet we're still pretending that drinking is a neutral choice.
That it's just part of a balanced, sophisticated life.

I'm not here to villainize anyone who drinks.
I'm not interested in judgment or moral superiority.

But I am interested in truth.

And the truth is that we've been sold a story about alcohol and luxury that's costing us our health. Our sleep. Our cellular integrity. Our longevity.

The question I had to ask myself—and the one I'm posing to you—is this:

If you knew that significantly reducing or eliminating alcohol could keep you healthier longer, reduce your cancer risk, improve your sleep, restore your energy, and slow cellular aging... would it be worth it?

Only you can answer that.

But I can tell you what I've discovered on the other side of this shift:

The most luxurious thing I've ever done is reclaim my mornings. My clarity. My vitality. My full presence in my own life.

Recently, I was at a Michelin-star restaurant and ordered a non-alcoholic craft cocktail made with de-alcoholized spirits. It was one of the best cocktails I've ever had—with or without alcohol.

Complex. Sophisticated. Beautifully crafted.

And I woke up the next morning feeling clear, rested, and like myself.

That is luxury.

IN REAL LIFE

What it actually looks like.

This isn't about deprivation. It's about discernment.

Here's how to navigate this shift with grace:

> Get curious about your why.

Before you reach for that drink, pause and ask: What am I actually reaching for?

Relaxation? Connection? Celebration? Numbness?

Most of us drink out of habit, not desire. We drink because it's there, because everyone else is, because it's "what you do" in certain situations.

Name what you actually want.

Then ask if alcohol delivers that—or just mimics it temporarily while borrowing from tomorrow.

> Reframe the social pressure.

"No thank you" is a complete sentence.

If you're in relationships or social situations where not drinking is met with pressure, judgment, or persistent questioning—that's information.

At this stage of life, we can let go of the need to perform for others' comfort.
The right people won't need you to drink to feel at ease around you.

And if they do? Maybe those aren't your people.

> Explore the alternatives.

The non-alcoholic wine and spirits industry has exploded in sophistication.
We're not talking about grape juice in a wine bottle.

These are complex, carefully crafted beverages designed to deliver the ritual,
the flavor, the experience—without the health cost.

Some of my favorites are linked below. Order a few. Experiment.
Find what feels celebratory and satisfying to you.

> Make peace with what you can't control.

We're exposed to toxins every day—in our environment, our water, our food supply.
You can't control all of it.

But alcohol? That's a choice.

It's one of the few toxins you have complete agency over.
And when you have control, why not use it in service of your vitality?

> Redefine luxury.

True luxury isn't about what you consume. It's about how you feel in your body.
How you show up in your life.
How long and how well you live.

A clear head. Deep sleep. Sustained energy. Cellular resilience. Longevity.

That's the kind of luxury that doesn't wear off by morning.

FROM THE WELL

What’s supporting the rhythm.

Seedlip
The original non-alcoholic spirit. Distilled botanicals with zero alcohol. Garden, Grove, and Spice varieties—each one a world unto itself. For the woman who wants complexity in her glass and clarity in her life.
👉 Discover Seedlip

Lyre's Non-Alcoholic Spirits
An extensive collection of non-alcoholic spirits that replicate the complexity of gin, whiskey, rum, and more. Mix them exactly as you would their alcoholic counterparts—the ritual remains, the hangover doesn't.
👉 Explore Lyre's

Ghia
A Mediterranean-inspired aperitif made with botanicals. Bold, bittersweet, beautiful. Pour it over ice with a splash of citrus and feel like you're on the Amalfi Coast—minus the morning-after regret.
👉 Try Ghia

Surely Non-Alcoholic Wine
Elegant, nuanced, and actually delicious. Sourced from California vineyards (yes, even in wine country, we're doing this). Sparkling, white, and red varietals that don't taste like an afterthought.
👉 Shop Surely

**These are not affiiate links, just my recommendations for good non-alcoholic spirits.

THE LAST WORD

The good life isn't found in a bottle.

It's found in the choices you make when no one's watching. In the mornings you wake up clear and rested. In the decades you add to your life by choosing differently.

This isn't about perfection. It's not about never drinking again or judging those who do.

It's about having the full picture—and then deciding what feels true for you.

Because luxury, real luxury, isn't about what you can afford to buy.

It's about what you can afford to lose.

Your vitality. Your longevity. Your clarity. Your presence.

Those aren't things you get back easily once they're gone.

So here's the invitation:

Reconsider the ritual. Question the narrative. Choose what actually serves you.

Not what looks luxurious—but what feels like life.

That's the shift. That's the medicine.

Until next week…

Be well. Be fierce. Be lavish.