Can two glasses of wine really ruin your week? Experts weigh in,
Steven Bartlett has been ridiculed for promoting a joyless ‘optimisation culture’ after claiming the effects of just two glasses of wine ‘ruined three days’ of his life.
The Dragons’ Den star, 33, said the data on his wearable smart technology Whoop showed that even a modest intake of alcohol negatively impacted his sleep and diet, as well as his dopamine and cortisol – happiness and stress levels in the body.
But he has faced a backlash from numerous celebrities, led by BBC Radio 1 Breakfast host Greg James, who encouraged people to join his ‘anti-Bartlett cult’.
On social media, James said: ‘Can we talk about this Bartlett thing? This wine thing…
‘I’ve sort of been railing against this for years. Not the alcohol thing, fair enough if you want to give up alcohol, it can ruin lives, got that – that’s not what my issue is. My issue is this endless optimisation and measuring of everything to the point where it starts to make you feel a bit miserable if you don’t quite hit your own targets.’
A host of stars joined in agreement with James on social media, including Julia Bradbury, Fearne Cotton, Gabby Logan, Bev Turner and rapper Example.
But does Bartlett have a point?
We asked experts what two glasses of wine really does to the body – and looked at whether health data from wearable technology should be fully believed.
Steven Bartlett has been ridiculed for promoting a joyless ‘optimisation culture’ after claiming the effects of just two glasses of wine ‘ruined three days’ of his life
Bartlett faced a backlash from numerous celebrities, led by BBC Radio 1 Breakfast host Greg James , who encouraged people to join his ‘anti-Bartlett cult’
Adam Taylor, a professor of anatomy at Lancaster University, told the Daily Mail today that the effects of a couple of drinks typically do not last beyond 24 hours.
He said: ‘Alcohol consumption and the effects vary from person to person, and depends on the alcohol strength and size of the glasses. A couple of glasses of wine would be sufficient to have an impact on sleep that night.
‘Alcohol helps people fall asleep but it alters the sleep pattern through the night, reducing the body’s ability or time to get into REM sleep. As the alcohol effect wears off, the nervous system attempts to reset which can cause broken sleep.’
Taylor adds that because alcohol is metabolised – broken down – in the liver, this affects the liver’s ability to moderate blood sugar levels due to its focus on clearing alcohol in the system.
This, he says, causes blood sugar levels to drop – which in Bartlett’s case may explain why he complained about his diet being impacted.
In Bartlett’s full speech, which he made on his podcast, he said: ‘I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn’t get drunk, it ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect that it caused.
‘It meant that I got worse sleep that night, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or the cortisol system or whatever was all messed up. Then I podcasted worse and I didn’t go to the gym the day after and I could track all of this on my Whoop, hashtag ad, hashtag sponsor, investor… whatever.’
Despite Bartlett’s assertions, Taylor says the body generally recovers quickly from moderate alcohol consumption.
He continued: ‘For most people, a couple of drinks might have an impact the next night but the body doesn’t usually take more than 24 hours to get back to ‘normal’ for that person.
‘Depending on people’s tolerance and lifestyle these effects can be longer or shorter, but the individual will know best about where their body is at in the following hours and days.’
David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacology professor at Imperial College London and a former government adviser, claims Bartlett’s experiences can be explained through ‘the science of alcohol’.
He says even a couple of glasses of wine can noticeably affect the brain chemistry of people who rarely or never drink, adding that this can ‘lead to disrupted sleep and concentration for at least one night – which in itself can continue for more days.
Professor Nutt, who launched a plant-based, zero alcohol brand named Sentia after years of research, added that ‘neuroinflammation (when the nervous tissue becomes inflamed) can also last longer’.
In official guidance, the NHS say adults are not recommended to drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week. This is the equivalent to six medium – or 175ml – glasses of wine, or six pints of average strength beer.
The health service say: ‘There’s no completely safe level of drinking. If you do drink alcohol, then it’s recommended to drink no more than 14 units a week, spread across 3 days or more.’
According to Alcohol Change UK, the average UK adult consumes 21 units per week, which is around a third higher than the guidance.
Bartlett’s comments on the use of Whoop for monitoring his dopamine and cortisol levels have also sparked discussion on whether it is useful to interpret data from smart technology.
One in three Britons now wears a smartwatch, most of which contain applications that allow the user to track data such as heart rate, sleep quality, VO2 max – commonly used to track fitness levels – and stress.
Most shine small lights through the skin to detect the blood flow in an artery, which is a way of measuring pulse.
According to Whoop – the device Bartlett uses – their gadgets track cortisol – or stress – levels by monitoring heart rate and HRV – the variations in time between heartbeats.
But some studies have warned that the tech may be encouraging bad habits.
Scientists previously found the more someone used their wrist-worn device to track their exercise, the more likely they were to pile on the pounds through ‘compensatory eating’ – or treating themselves to a snack because they feel good about being active.
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And, according to the research, women were much more likely to reward themselves with food for exercising than men.
Experts at the University of Delaware in the US asked 200 smartwatch users how frequently they wore the gadgets or checked their health status on them. They also asked them to rate how strongly they agreed with the statement ‘I reward myself for the effort I put into my exercise’.
The results, published in Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking, revealed the volunteers who checked smartwatches more frequently were more likely to tuck into a treat.
The report said the positive health impact of smartwatches ‘may be limited for some users as compensatory eating can derail fitness goals’.
It added: ‘Many users, including young women, are at risk of this when they excessively rely on smartwatches for fitness purposes.’
Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously discussed the possibility of providing wearable gadgets to millions of NHS patients in England as part of a drive to help people monitor symptoms and track responses to treatment.
Laying out his ten-year vision, Mr Streeting explained that technology – notably the NHS app – would become more useful once it has access to data collected from wearables.
But some experts say an average person’s ability to access this data – once largely only available to doctors and professionals – risks encouraging self-diagnosis and increasing health anxiety.
Other professionals say that while the data can be helpful, they remain cautious about using it in clinical settings.
Katerina Georgiou, a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy accredited psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, tells the Daily Mail: ‘There can be a tendency to fixate on getting your metrics in such as correct steps and this becoming such a consuming part of your day to day that what begins as a form of tracking and control can seep into taking control over your life.
‘It’s important to factor in joy into any activity you undertake and notice when what has started as an attempt to improve your life in itself starts to feel like a prison.
Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously discussed the possibility of providing wearable gadgets to millions of NHS patients in England
‘Of course, it’s important to be healthy and sometimes these things can be very helpful in establishing a kind of discipline into your daily routine which for some people works very well, but when discipline turns into a shame-based affair, where you start reprimanding yourself for not having achieved the target goal, that can be counterproductive and takes up headspace, possibly as counterproductive as the glass of wine.
‘For some people, such tracking of metrics can feed into other patterns of control and serve to be an ‘allowable’ way to hide in it, and difficult to then get help for because it ‘looks’ like productivity which is embraced in society.’
Radio 1 host James also encouraged people to ‘switch off’ their fitness trackers and ‘go and have a nice time’ in his social media video responding to Bartlett’s comments.
He added: ‘Optimisation is killing fun. We absolutely need to rail against that. So phones down today. Go and have a nice time! And don’t log it.’
His rallying cry against so-called ‘optimisation culture’ – the growing trend of meticulously tracking and measuring aspects of daily life in pursuit of better health and performance – received overwhelming support from fellow celebrities.
Julia Bradbury, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, said that while she does sometimes track her goals, life is about ‘progress not perfection’.
She wrote: ‘Agreed. As someone who’s written books about this, at the end of the day it’s about progress not perfection, and fun. I had cancer. Grateful for every day.
‘I track on days I want to achieve some goals and go on instincts the rest of the time. Interesting thought, that the wine had such an impact on him – and alcohol is something I’ve given up. Reduces my risk of recurrence, and I’ve danced on a few tables in my time’.
Fearne Cotton, who also showed her support, joked: ‘I genuinely sometimes podcast better on a hangover.’
Rapper Example also made his stance known, saying: ‘That’s why I don’t wear those stupid f***ing watches. I don’t care. I don’t wanna know. I’ll just live in the moment and get on with it’.
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Beverley Turner said: ‘Totally. It’s also out-sourcing instinct to tech. These people will become deskilled at listening to their bodies – not just whether your bloody sleep rhythms are off – but what’s pain? What is illness? What is just tiredness?
‘What is hunger? They stop listening to themselves. They make themselves easier to control externally.. it is disempowerment dressed up as success. It’s the opposite’.
Comedian Donna Ashworth said: ‘I do feel this moment in time is about making the simple act of living ‘well’ into a monumental task every day.
‘It’s all a bit too much hard work. Just try and be kind to everyone (and yourself), get outside and eat food that fuels you whenever you can. Humans are messy and not supposed to be on robot mode every day. Embrace the unknown sometimes and mix it up.’
Other stars who showed support by sharing a range of positive emojis included drag queen Danny Beard, This Morning host Cat Deeley and cricket star Stuart Broad.
Match Of The Day host Gabby Logan also vouched for James’s view.
