Whole Foods founder John Mackey said his Apple Watch helped him quit drinking
Dry January continues amid the US surgeon general's new warning of the link between alcohol and cancer. Still, it's just another month for Whole Foods founder John Mackey, who stopped drinking in January 2022. The 71-year-old told Business Insider he's never felt better.
"I was tracking my sleep, and some days I didn't sleep well, and some days I did sleep well," he recalled. "So, I started to ask the question, 'Well, what did I do differently when I didn't sleep well?'"
"One was how much exercise I did — more exercise led to better sleep," he said. "Second was if I ate a big meal late, I didn't sleep very well. And third was if I drank any alcohol at all, my deep sleep went to zero. I didn't get any deep sleep."
Mackey said he typically enjoyed a glass of wine or beer a few times a week, and his "total sleep would drop, on average, about an hour" when he drank.
"I like drinking alcohol, so I did not want to give it up," Mackey said. "But I did the experiment over and over and over again, and I got the same results."
