At the KAM Low + No 2026 – Drinking Differently conference on Thursday 25 June, which was held at Amazing Grace in Canary Wharf, London, around 200 delegates gathered to talk about all types of low & no alcohol drinks.
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On a panel discussion hosted by KAM marketing director Katie Jenkins, Professor David Nutt, co-founder of GABA Labs; Laura Willoughby, co-founder of Club Soda; and Emma Catterall, head of research at Drinkaware chatted about what is changing the way we drink.
Catterall said Drinkaware research has found between 7% and 10% of UK adults are taking weight-loss medication, also referred to as GLP-1 (Glucagon-Like Peptide-1) and users said they were drinking less alcohol by about 29% and their number of weekly units consumed reduced by 16%.
Catterall added an interesting finding was the “social ripple” effect; she explained: “Among those people who knew someone taking a GLP-1 medication, they also changed their drinking behaviour.
GLP-1 is changing others’ habits
“Some 30% have reduced their own drinking while they were with the person who is taking GLP-1 medication, 16% opted for a low or no option instead and 20% chose to socialise in a different way.
“These medications are not just changing the drinking habits of those people consuming them, they’re also changing those habits of those around them. That has some very practical potential for spreading moderation.”
Another section affecting pubs and bars are functional drinks, which can be any non-alcoholic with added ingredients such as vitamins, herbs, probiotics or adaptogens that are designed to provide health benefits beyond basic hydration.
At the KAM Low + No 2026 – Drinking Differently conference on Thursday 25 June, panellist Professor David Nutt pointed to the fact people are “intensely social creatures” yet we are “not very good at being social and that’s why alcohol became such a popular drug”.
However, though functional drinks, “we can give people the ability to be more social without using alcohol and we do it through targeting the sociability network in the brain and [functional drinks] can essentially mimic the effects of alcohol on the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) system without all the other effects of alcohol, which affects everything else in the brain.”
Little bit of a buzz
Fellow panellist and Club Soda founder Laura Willoughby added alcohol is a functional ingredient too and people who do drink alcohol may think: “I’m not having alcohol today, but I’d still like something that gives me a lift.
“I know these ingredients are good because I read about them all the time and I might have them in other formats, like from Holland & Barrett and therefore I’ll add these drinks into my diet as well – so they might have Lion’s Mane (mushroom) or ashwagandha (plant) are good for them and therefore they are likely to drink them more often.
“Those ingredients help people deal with the idea that they still want something that gives them a little bit of a feeling, a little bit of a buzz, but they don’t want the alcohol.”
Nutt added functional drinks may help avoid the increasing factor of loneliness that is becoming more prevalent in today’s society.
He said: “Digital technology could be quite damaging. It might actually increase loneliness because we don’t have the skills to socialise and that is why functional drinks are going to become central for the next generation.”
