File from the Wikimedia Commmons
I guess with the drink-oriented, food-centered, and desert-stuffed holidays around the corner it’s a better time than most to address the topic of “eating alcohol”. By this I mean ingesting alcohol through means other than drinking it- such as partaking of the popular desert Bananas Foster or liquor filled chocolates. My sweet examples of alcohol delicacies are obviously dangerous, but what about other dishes? You know what I’m talking about… those dishes where it’s easy to rationalize that the alcohol has “cooked off”.
Well if you clicked the last link, then you know that alcohol is rarely totally evaporated from most dishes. More importantly for the alcoholic though, it’s not the remaining alcohol that is the problem regardless of the amount. The real issue is knowingly ingesting it, especially when doubts exist or it just feels like the wrong thing to do (and it does), because whether it’s baked, boiled, or flambé’… it’s still alcohol and that beast in the back of our mind knows it! Relapse is a process and the end results are the same when we willingly deceive.
I think this is especially important for those struggling with early sobriety who often ask, “is it okay to eat dishes prepared with alcohol?” Don’t tell me that over the holidays you didn’t realize that it was rum in the candy or thought it was lighter fluid instead of banana liqueur that produced such a dramatic dish. Alcoholics are notoriously perspicacious when it comes to identifying sources of alcohol and devious when it comes to justifying drinking or eating it. You know it’s there. You know you shouldn’t have it. Crunchy, creamy, or just extinguished- it’s still alcohol.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
thanks for the post.
I agree and disagree. I think the choices are up to the individual who makes them. If someone eats a chocolate and didn’t know it had booze in it then they should make the decision on their own if their sobriety date needs to change. No one should tell them otherwise. It is their program and they need to decide what is best for them. Like some say ‘don’t use listerine,’ and I agree with that..but for some using listerine (due to alcohol content) is never a threat for them. In fact I know a number of addicts who are still sober..some 20 year and never picked up a drink.
For me? It is not a place of me to judge. I just work my own program.
Thanks for the feedback Mike- I always try to be as non-judgemental as possible but sometimes I know the posts may seem a little too harsh which I blame on brevity and poor writing. On the matter of chocolates, deserts, and even mouthwash I try to stress the point (without writing a book) that the key damning point in all of this is the willing and premeditated ingestion of alcohol through a process of rationalization. I see no reason to evaluate one’s sobriety because of using mouthwash with alcohol, accidently biting into or sipping something alcoholic- as long as one tries to prevent ingestion and hasn’t planned it out.
I agree with Mike, and I have my own experience as well.
I LOVE Marsala sauce, I mean LOVE it. The first time I had it sober I had a horrible thought “Oh, God, I didn’t think about the alcohol!” No biggie. Talked to my sponsor and we talked about cooking off the alcohol. In the last four years of sobriety I’ve had marsala sauce about two times, and neither of them were ways I was “deceiving myself” to relapse. FOR ME, it works. I don’t eat ice cream with alcohol content because it’s not cooked off. I don’t even drink Sangria flavored soda which contains NO alcohol, because it reminds me too much of wine. I take NyQuil in pill form because it doesn’t contain any alcohol, but my former roommate uses the liquid form when she’s sick (she’s been sober four years as well). I REALLY can’t understand how people drink non-alcoholic beer because to me it reminds me too much of drinking, but I have friends that enjoy it (and they work programs). The point? It’s different for each of us… AND each of these things could mean something completely different to the same person on a different day. We only have ONE DAY AT A TIME and our motives for eating/drinking certain things can change within a day or even an hour, even when we are working our programs. It’s about being “spiritually fit”.
I’m in new sobriety and have a throat and chest cold. After taking cough medicine the other night, and sleeping for 10 hours, I realized I should probably feel guilty for taking something with alcohol in it. And I did a little. But taking the cough medicine didn’t make me want to drink beer or wine or have a martini or anything. So I think it’s okay. But I totally get what you’re saying. And now I’m craving bananas foster. Thanks.
Reminds me of a guest post from a few years back-
A Touch of the Sniffles, Get Me Some Nyquil