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Press releases

Press Release

Thursday 31 January 2008

Beat the Booze

Harriman House

Alcohol experts call for compulsory substitutes

Edmund and Helen Tirbutt, co-authors of Beat the Booze, are urging the Government to make it compulsory for pubs, restaurants and off-licences to offer quality de-alcoholised wines and beers as alternatives to alcoholic drinks in order to help combat the nation's well documented drink problems. Recent statitistics show there are more than six million britons who drink more than 50 units a week, and another 1 million are alcohol dependent.

It is now possible to obtain de-alcoholised beers and wines through specialist retailers that taste much more realistic than the types that have been sold for decades in pubs and supermarkets. But the monopoly that the large drinks companies enjoy over the drinks industry as a whole has ensured that these enjoy virtually no presence in the places that really matter.

Edmund Tirbutt says: "In Sweden, restaurants are legally obliged to include an alcohol-free wine on the wine list and we thoroughly recommend that our Government goes a stage further and makes it compulsory for these newer and more realistic substitutes to be available wherever alcohol is sold. They are in a completely different league to the ones that have been traditionally available and we have heard countless stories of how dinner party hosts have managed to pass them off as the real thing."

Dr. Surinder Kaur, an addiction specialist at the Hale Clinic in West London, says: "I think some of the non-alcoholic substitutes are fantastic, particularly the red wines. The red grape skin has an anti-oxidant effect and the sugar and fermentation process helps you glow. You couldn't be under the influence of alcohol from these drinks, however much you drank. If it became standard practice for them to be served in restaurants and pubs it would certainly prevent people from feeling deprived, and would help them maintain a consistency in their self-help programme."

The de-alcoholised wines - and in some cases beers - are exactly the same as their normal counterparts all the way through to the bottling stage, when the alcohol is removed. This means that the flavour and all the original characteristics remain, but the drink has only between one third and one half of the calories of the real thing. Because all the anti-oxidants and other goodness remain, these substitutes are just as effective as alcoholic drinks in combating heart disease amongst very moderate middle-aged and older drinkers. There is even some evidence emerging that non-alcoholic beer can help combat cancer.

Helen Tirbutt adds: "These substitutes are already proving popular with pregnant women, drivers, weight watchers and those who want to avoid alcohol for religious or cultural reasons. They also appeal to people who merely want to cut down their alcohol intake. Some drink these substitutes during the week and enjoy themselves with alcohol at weekends. But all the best resolutions in the world can come to nothing if you find yourself in a place where quality de-alcoholised drinks are not available."

"This is a first class publication that contains a wealth of practical information for patients, families and the general public alike. It is highly commendable."
- Professor Ian Gilmore, President, Royal College of Physicians

"First class, in setting out why we have the problem and also the wider reactions of countries in Europe to our own country's self-induced ills. The book also provides real practical help to those who have succumbed in various ways to heavy drinking. How to beat it personally and the appropriate reactions of family and wider society are all very well set out."
- Professor Roger Williams, CBE, Director of the Institute of Hepatology, International Centre For Research Into Liver Disorders

"Reads extremely well and is highly informative."
- Dr. Francis Keaney, Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist, National Addiction Centre

"Ideal for anyone with an alcohol related problem, their family, friends or employer."
- Peter Smith, Head of Counselling, Broadway Lodge

Ends

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Edmund Tirbutt worked for many years on national papers during which time he won 18 journalism awards. He achieved this ambition having tackled his problem drinking and has been teetotal for 21 years.

Helen Tirbutt worked in the City in PR and Communication. She has been teetotal for over two years, after deciding that life without alcohol is infinitely better than a life with it.

Visit the authors' website at: www.beatthebooze.com

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

More details can be found online at: www.harriman-house.com/beatthebooze

For further information on this book or its author, please contact Helen McCusker in the PR department at Harriman House:

Tel: +44 (0)1730 233885
Email: pr@harriman-house.com

Harriman House Ltd, 3A Penns Road, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 2EW

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