Club Soda’s new ‘Gateway? No Way’ report has found no proof that alcohol-free drinks lead people towards alcohol, alongside growing evidence the products can help people moderate instead.
The global no, low and mid-strength drink advocacy organisation’s own research showed 94% of respondents had tried full-strength alcoholic beer before sampling alcohol-free beer.
The report also cites research from the UK by Oldham et al, which found that alcohol-free drinks were rarely consumed by under-18s. Moreover, within family settings, young people were more likely to be offered alcoholic drinks than alcohol-free alternatives, the research showed.
Meanwhile, a study by Groefsema et al also cited in the report found that Dutch students who had never consumed alcohol-free drinks drank more than those who consumed both alcoholic and alcohol-free products. The majority of students drinking alcohol-free products also said these drinks had helped them reduce their alcohol consumption.
The report therefore concluded that the gateway theory to alcohol-free drinks “gets the order of events backwards”.
“For alcohol-free drinks to genuinely act as a gateway, there would need to be evidence that people typically begin with alcohol-free products and then progress to alcohol,” it said. “The research reviewed by Club Soda found no such pattern.”
Club Soda founder Laura Willoughby said: “The idea that alcohol-free drinks somehow teach people to drink alcohol gets the story completely backwards. For almost everyone, alcohol comes first. Alcohol-free drinks are something people discover later, when they want to moderate, have more choice, or stay part of the occasion without drinking alcohol.”
The government is currently considering measures to regulate access to alcohol-free beers, wines and spirits to under-18s as part of the its 10-Year Health Plan, over fears that the products could normalise drinking, and become a gateway to alcohol consumption.
Willoughby said such proposals risked “turning one of the tools people are using to drink less into part of the problem”.
“If we are serious about reducing alcohol harm, we should be making these drinks easier to find, understand and afford, not putting unnecessary barriers in their way,” she added.
Luke Boase, founder of alcohol-free beer brand Lucky Saint, agreed. “Club Soda’s Gateway Report makes clear is that alcohol-free beer is not encouraging people to drink alcohol, it is giving them another way to drink less of it,” he said. “And that is something we should be celebrating as a nation.
“As more people look at making alcohol-free part of their normal routine, we should be removing barriers and making great alcohol-free options even more widely available.”
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