<p>Nutritional science advances by the accumulation of results from 100s or 1000s of studies. So far it is clear that moderate alcohol drinkers live longer than heavy drinkers and teetotalers. There is no credible body of hypothesis-backed evidence that grape juice can replace the benefit of ethanol. </p>
<p>I’ve seen too often the destruction booze can do to people. If excessive booze doesn’t get your liver, it can destroy your heart with cardiomyopathy. DUI deaths are inexcusable. I don’t care that some studies say a glass of wine each day may help your health…I can do without alcohol and don’t drink…I have no problem if others do…I just don’t.</p>
<p>The problem is “moderate” is a term that depends on the definition of a “drink” bat gets misinterpreted by so many folks!</p>
<p>Here is the official CDC definition:</p>
<p>“According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,1 moderate alcohol consumption is defined as having up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men. This definition is referring to the amount consumed on any single day and is not intended as an average over several days. The Dietary Guidelines also state that it is not recommended that anyone begin drinking or drink more frequently on the basis of potential health benefits because moderate alcohol intake also is associated with increased risk of breast cancer, violence, drowning, and injuries from falls and motor vehicle crashes.”</p>
<p>If we almost always miscalculate how many calories we consume, how often do you think we miscalculate how much we drink? A big glass of wine is 1 1/2 drinks or even 2! </p>
<p>The more I think of the statistic “1 in 10 deaths among working-age people due to excessive alcohol use,” the more I dislike it. This is the wrong way to measure alcohol-related deaths. We don’t care about the ratio of alcohol-related deaths to other deaths. We care about the alcohol-related death rate by itself, not in relation to other death rates.</p>
<p>Suppose there was a serious influenza pandemic, causing deaths among working age people. Would we cheerfully say, “Alcohol-related deaths decline to 1 in 15 deaths among working-age people?” I hope not, because in reality we’d have no good news there. The number of deaths NOT related to alcohol is irrelevant when we consider the deaths that ARE related to alcohol.</p>
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That’s why I’d rather not think about it! X_X </p>
<p><a href=“So Are 2 Drinks A Day Really Too Many? : Shots - Health News : NPR”>So Are 2 Drinks A Day Really Too Many? : Shots - Health News : NPR;
<p>I’m not an alcohol nazi. But I agree that we as a nation drink more than we really should. Not as much as some Eastern European countries do, but still too much. Very interestingly, in Germany I saw notches on some restaurant wine glasses that marked 150 ml or whatever the drink size there was. </p>
<p>A side note - of course, the wine and beer industry would not want us to limit our consumption! </p>
<p>The question becomes how does one reduce the amount that people drink? Do we make it illegal? We’ve tried that and it was a dismal failure. Do we educate people? We do that already and people still drink to excess. I think part of our problem is that we have come to associate alcohol with socializing and self image. It starts in college or even before in HS. Kids especially,
become less inhibited and lose their ability to reason as they drink more which encourages them to drink even more and take risks. This behavior often carrys on into adulthood. Some have a perpensity towards alcoholism when any alcohol is destructive. </p>
<p>It is suggested that moderate drinking may actually not be damaging but rather helpful. How do we encourage moderate drinking while discouraging excessive consumption. Most moderate drinkers I know treat alcohol as part of a meal rather than a means simply to socialize. Many are foodies and are typcially wine drinkers as wine pairs well with many foods. When the food stops so does the wine. I know some moderate beer drinkers and they tend towards the craft beers. Perhaps if alcohol were presented as part of your diet rather than as a means to a “better you” people would treat it differently.</p>
<p>The slippery slope I don’t want us to take is to the penalizing those who will make good decisions concerning alcohol consumption because of those who won’t. </p>