VOL. 6 · JUNE 13, 2026

Saturday morning. Coffee first.

THE RESEARCH — There Is No Safe Amount

For decades the line was "a glass of red is good for your heart." Then in 2018, the Global Burden of Disease study — 195 countries, hundreds of risk studies, published in The Lancet — ran the numbers and reached a blunt conclusion: the level of drinking that minimizes harm to your health is zero.

Risk rose steadily with every drink. Alcohol ranked among the leading risk factors for death and disability worldwide and accounted for roughly one in ten deaths among men aged 15 to 49. The old heart-health story turned out to be mostly an artifact of how the earlier studies were built.

This is a population-level finding, and reasonable scientists still debate the size of the risk for a couple drinks a week. But the direction isn't in dispute. More is worse, and none is cleanest.

The takeaway: You don't have to become a teetotaler to take this seriously. But the belief that your nightly drink is doing something for you should be retired. At best it's neutral, and at worst it is stealing years from your life. Be honest about why you reach for it and what you are really getting out of it.

GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators, 2018 (The Lancet, 392(10152), 1015–1035)

WORTH REMEMBERING

Seneca is one of my favorite philosophers. He wasn't some prude — he enjoyed a good Roman dinner. His point here is this: every other path to losing your mind is involuntary. This one you choose, glass by glass.

And here is the part most men avoid. Trace your worst decisions back to their source, honestly, and an unsettling number of them end at a bottle — the fight, the wreck, the words you can't unsay, the night that cost you something you never got back. Alcohol hands us our best campfire stories and writes the ones we'd give anything to erase. The good ones fade into a laugh with the boys. The bad ones can leave damage that never fully heals. I break this down at length in the alcohol chapter of The Heroic Man; if this lands, that's where to go deeper.

TRY THIS WEEK — Two Weeks Dry

Go Dry.

Not forever. Fourteen days. From today through the end of June (because there is no way you shouldn't enjoy a cold one as we celebrate 250 years of Freedom on July 4th. 'Merica).

Watch what happens: deeper sleep within a few nights, maybe lose a few pounds, clearer mornings, and the discovery of how many of your social reflexes are built around drinking. Culture drives consumption especially here in the States.

Then don't just snap back. Before the two weeks are even up, take honest inventory of what you'd normally put away in a week — count the beers, the pours, the rounds, all of it. Most men badly underestimate the real number until they write it down. Then set a quota for the week ahead and hold it: a number you decide sober on Sunday, not one you renegotiate upward on a Friday night. Trust me, I was a pro at these kinds of conversations. A pro who made a decision on Monday to chill out on the beers and by Friday, my "no" governor for "just one more round" magically got disconnected.

The goal isn't to prove you can white-knuckle two weeks. It's to meet the man underneath the drinking — most men haven't or at least avoided for years — and then drink like someone who's responsible, not aimless.

FROM THE BOOKSHELF — Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven

McRaven commanded the SEAL operation that took down Bin Laden, and the central lesson of his short book is almost insultingly simple: if you want to change your life, start by making your bed. Do the first small task of the day, do it well, and you've banked a win before the world gets a vote.

When I was a sophomore in high school trying to make a name for myself as the quarterback of the football team, my coach told me I have to take my fitness and sleep seriously. One of his simplest pieces of advice was to wake-up when the alarm goes off and make my bed right. From that morning on I've made my bed every single day. It's still one of the most important things I do — and I know how that sounds. Personality plays a part, sure. But the principle holds for every man: start the day with a win. Make your bed, read your Bible, pray, get the workout in — whatever it is, put a point on the board before the day has a chance to push back. Win the morning and the rest of it stops running you. Make your bed.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Alcohol is a part of our culture. Everywhere we turn, there is an ad or opportunity to have a drink. I really enjoy a glass of Blantons or an ice cold Sam Adams like any other red-blooded American. But my feelings about how delicious it is don't matter to the facts. Alcohol is a toxin. One our body has to fight before it can handle anything else. That is not a triviality you should write-off.

The hardest research to pass along is the kind that takes something from you. Nobody wants to hear the wine or couple beers doesn't count. But you didn't sign up for this letter to be flattered. You signed up to get better. Sometimes that costs a drink. Be honest about your consumption. You won't regret cutting back.

See you next Saturday.

If this meant something to you — or you know a man who'd benefit from it — please share this link with them: The Saturday Standard​