THE NUANCE

When Your Bad Habits Aren’t Actually All That Bad

Some ‘unhealthy’ behaviors — such as drinking alcohol — should be considered in the fuller context of a person’s life.

Last April I visited Cornwall, in southwest England. My Airbnb was in a small village — really just a cluster of houses and a pub — and on my first night I decided to visit the pub for a drink.

The place looked appealing from the outside — old stone walls and a hand-painted sign bearing a stallion’s head. But it turned out to be modest and mostly charmless on the inside. The lighting was spotty and the room was dank. A space heater groaned in a corner.

No one was sitting at the bar, but a handful of people — eight or so men and women, most of them older — occupied some of the tables. They eyeballed me as I walked in, and I was considering walking right back out again when the woman behind the taps asked me if I’d come in to ask for directions or if I was looking for drink. I didn’t want to seem like a lost tourist, so I ordered a pint. I sat down with my beer and tried not to look uncomfortable.

The man sitting closest to me, surely sensing my unease, leaned over and offered his hand. His name was Roger and he was a mason. His tablemate was Harry. Harry painted houses and also, I learned later, had made the handsome sign over the bar’s entrance — the one with the stallion’s head.

Roger and Harry asked what had brought me to town. I told them I was visiting the area with my wife and kids, and they seemed pleased to hear it. They told me about some places worth visiting, and soon the other people in the bar had joined in our conversation. It became clear that everyone here knew everyone else. They were not only familiars but also regulars. They visited the pub almost every night.

As time passed, some of them left — bidding me a good visit and safe travels — and others arrived. It felt like I was spending time with a big family, and I found myself wishing I lived near a pub like this — a place I could go to at the end of each day for a pint and a restorative dose of fellow-feeling.

I thought of that Cornish crew recently as I was reading a social science paper from a group of researchers at the University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester. In that paper, partly titled “All Drinking Is Not Equal,” its authors argue that too many of our public health discussions are “decontextualized” and focused myopically on an activity — drinking, for example — while ignoring the larger context in which that activity is nested.

They made the case that the health ramifications of a nightly pub visit — something that is still commonplace in many parts of the U.K. and Ireland — aren’t just about the amount of alcohol people consume. (Thought that’s still important.) These visits offer an opportunity for social mixing and bonding. They help people feel rooted in their local communities and they combat loneliness and isolation. These sorts of benefits should be considered alongside the potential risks of alcohol consumption.

Of course, one could argue the alcohol isn’t really necessary — that everyone in that Cornwall pub could have been drinking water instead. While that’s notionally true, to pretend that alcohol doesn’t grease the wheels of social interaction is disingenuous. Booze has been helping people bond for centuries.

Even if someone is drinking by themselves and pairing that alcohol with other “unhealthy” activities — snacking, social media, etc. — it’s difficult to judge the true effects of this when taken out of the context of a person’s life, the study team argues.

As an example, they describe a ritual some have dubbed “wine-o-clock.” For many people with small children, they write, “a typical weekday evening . . . involves coming home from work, cooking dinner, bedtime routine, household chores, and then, from sometime between 8pm and 9pm, a bit of ‘me time’ involving relaxation, a sense of freedom from parental responsibility, a glass of wine, chatting, snacks, TV and social media.”

While epidemiologists (and plenty of health-conscious Americans) might categorize this as a series of unhealthy additions — an extra 25 g of ethanol, 10 g of added sugar, 1.5 hours of screentime, 1.5 hours of sedentary time, etc. — this hour may represent the only part of the day when a person sets down their burdens and allows themself a few indulgences. Ditching that hour might look “healthier” on a study survey, but its absence could also make the rest of that person’s life feel like a relentless grind.

All this is worth considering because, when it comes to modern prescriptions for healthy living, the perfect can sometimes become the enemy of the good.

In an attempt to “simplify,” people may adopt immoderate, all-or-nothing approaches to dieting, drinking, exercise, and other behaviors without considering how these choices will fit into the broader context of their lives.

There’s an old saying in medicine: the dose makes the poison. Too much alcohol can be dangerous. But too much self-optimization can itself be sub-optimal.