I just dropped in to my local Marks & Spencer food hall to pick up a few bottles as they’d announced their “biggest ever wine festival” with a third off dozens of lines. At 8.30am I was too late – loads of empty spaces on the shelves greeted me as practically every discounted bottle bar the most expensive had been sold. No doubt they’d be swiftly restocked.

That situation sums up UK middle class drinking in a nutshell: Brexit might be stalling, the weather this holiday weekend might be variable, but to keep calm and carry on, we Brits need at least a glass or two every day.

Is our attitude towards booze a big problem? You’d think so, reading the latest study published in The Lancet medical journal.

The Global Burden of Disease, carried out by the University of Washington, involving hundreds of scientists, has come to the conclusion that any alcohol is bad for us. They concluded that the detrimental effects of drink outweighed the health benefits enjoyed by those who only consumed a moderate amount within “safe” guidelines. But when you examine the details of their findings, the difference between the 23 alcohol-related health problems that developed in “safe” drinkers and those of non-drinkers was just four in every 100,000 people – which makes the study pointless, according to a leading British professor for the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University. He reckons the pleasure enjoyed by moderate drinkers must be set against any small risk to our health. But there’s the rub – the word “moderate”.

A very large number of people (me included) tend not to be very good at moderation and very good at excess. In my case, excessive exercise has worn out my knees so one has had to be replaced. I’ve had two slipped disc operations in six months because I quickly resumed long-distance hiking far too soon after the first.

People who abstain from alcohol are off sick more often than those who drink moderately

I don’t drink excessively now but I did in my thirties, forties and early fifties, especially when I was a successful TV executive. This Monday a BBC2 documentary showed television presenter Adrian Chiles revealing he drinks up to 100 units a week and struggles to get through the day booze-free. Adrian’s use of alcohol as a support and social crutch is common – he can drink at a safe level and still enjoy life, otherwise his health will certainly suffer.

According to a recent study which looked at drinkers in the Very High Risk category, Britain has the highest number of problem drinkers in Europe at nearly 3 per cent. These are people whose vital organs are being poisoned and whose perception is impaired every single day.

I’ve seen at close hand the damage alcohol causes and the difference between moderate drinking and addiction, the craving for any drink that will alter your perception of reality and make life more bearable. This week, the film star Jennifer Garner was photographed driving her ex-husband Ben Affleck to a treatment centre for alcohol abuse, his third time attending one in 17 years. That’s something I’ve done for a loved one too.

If you have the addictive gene, then alcohol gradually wrecks your life, your relationships and will eventually kill you. Please ignore the latest study telling us to stop altogether, because that’s irrelevant. What we should confront is our inability to drink in moderation. There’s even new evidence of the positive side to booze: a study has found that middle-aged people who imbibe a small glass of wine a day are half as likely to develop dementia, although excessive drinkers are 17 per cent more likely to contract the disease.

If the people who are drinking excessively are the middle-aged and elderly, many young people are abstaining altogether. A quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds never drink and those who do only consume one or two units a week on average, hardly the behaviour of my generation of student boozers. But is abstention the solution to our problem with safe drinking?

The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 10. Poland Results from an OECD report The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 9. Germany Two competitors face off during the 60th annual Bavarian finger wrestling championships (in German: Fingerhakeln) on August 11, 2013 in Feldkirchen-Westerham, Germany. The sport involves two competitors matched in class according to age and weight who sit at a specifically-designed table across from one another and pull at a small leather band with one finger until one player has pulled the other across. The sport is traditional in Bavaria and Austria. The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 8. Luxembourg Mandatory Credit: Photo by WestEnd61/REX (2694653a) Luxembourg, People sitting near restaurant VARIOUS Rex Features The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 7. France The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 6. Hungary Mandatory Credit: Photo by Juergen Hasenkopf/REX (507890e) Hungarian alcohol bottles URGARN, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY Rex Features The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 5. Russia Russian World War II veterans drink vodka as part of Victory Day celebrations in Vladikavkaz on May 9, 2008. The occasion reflects the trauma of World War II in which millions of Soviet citizens died before driving back the Nazis, but also a large measure of Soviet-style propaganda which airbrushed dark aspects of the story -- not least Stalin's massive wartime repressions. AFP PHOTO / KAZBEK BASAYEV (Photo credit should read KAZBEK BASAYEV/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 4. Czech Republic BREZNICE, CZECH REPUBLIC - JULY 19: Competitors down a bottle of lager July 19, 2003 during a beer drinking competition at the Herold Brewery in Breznice, Czech Republic. Pub life and beer are an intrinsic element of Czech culture, and contribute to the Czech Republic's first place world ranking in annual consumption of beer per capita, at 156 liters, well ahead of second-place Ireland (125 liters per head) and third-place Germany (120 liters per head). (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 3. Estonia Mandatory Credit: Photo by Mood Board/REX (3916338a) MODEL RELEASED Bartenders working at counter in restaurant Tallinn, Estonia VARIOUS Rex Features The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 2. Austria SALZBURG, AUSTRIA - JULY 27: Ben Becker (Tod) broaches the beer barrel at the launch party at Krimpelstaetter tavern after the 'Jedermann" premiere during the Salzburg Festival on July 27, 2011 in Salzburg, Austria. (Photo by Martin Schalk/Getty Images) Getty Images The 10 countries that drink the most alcohol 1. Lithuania Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite (Rl) and members of her delegation hold glasses of wine on November 22, 2011 during a document-signing ceremony after their talks in Kiev. Grybauskaite is in Ukraine for a one-day working visit to meet with Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and to attend the fifth session of the Council of Presidents of the Republic of Lithuania and Ukraine. AFP PHOTO/SERGEI SUPINSKY (Photo credit should read SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images

Binge-drinking is still a problem among students and young professionals. The recent high-profile court cases involving professional sportsmen Ben Stokes and Danny Cipriani involved late-night drinking and confrontational behaviour. The English Cricket Board plans to put support in place to ensure that in future there will be no embarrassing late-night booze-ups when the team are abroad. I’ve been trolled for saying it, but anyone who plays in a national team has a responsibility to act decently, and getting pissed and acting aggressively in public is something incompatible with your role.

I should be celebrating that many young people don’t drink, but I would be happier if secondary school students were better educated about the good and bad sides of drinking and drugs. If they were helped to understand addiction and dependency while in their teens, they would be able to spot the signs of it developing and act accordingly. The middle class drinkers who empty the shelves of wine bargains aren’t all going to turn into alcoholics, but we do need to look out for friends and family who have crossed the line into dependency.

The bravado exhibited by our drunken sportsmen is so typical of the British attitude to booze – any kind of celebration has to degenerate into excessive behaviour. An increasing number of middle-aged women are fast becoming alcohol dependent: in the prime time drama series Keeping Faith, a successful mother and lawyer turns to the booze in every episode, swigging from the bottle as the search for her missing husband turns bleaker. Role model? It is repulsive to watch.