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Question of the Month: Is the Party Over for Drinking Alcohol?
Time to stop wine-ing?
By Matthew Kadey, MS, RD
Jun 8, 2020
A trio of recent research papers continue to spill the truth about how alcohol consumption affects our health, while tossing shade at the idea of the French paradox—a catchy phrase researchers came up with in the early 1990s to explain how sipping generous amounts of Bordeaux could allow a population to indulge in buttery croissants but still have fabulous coronary health. For starters, an investigation in the January issue of Clinical Nutrition linked drinking an average of more than 30 milliliters of alcohol daily (a little over 1 ounce!) with rising blood pressure numbers in men, raising the risk for heart ailments.
More pooh-poohing of booze comes from University College London, where the white coats found that people age 59 and over who’d been heavy drinkers for several years were at a greater risk for larger waistlines, stroke and worsening liver functioning. Heavy drinking could be just three or four drinks a day, four or more times a week.
And here’s more news that may make you pause before having a nightcap: Even light-to-moderate alcohol consumption (no more than one to two drinks per day) may be associated with overall elevated cancer risk, according to research in the journal Cancer conducted by scientists in Japan. Overall, cancer risk among the 63,232 patients appeared to be lowest at zero alcohol consumption.
Has recent research about the potential health risks associated with alcohol consumption changed your drinking habits? Do you still believe moderate intakes of wine and other alcoholic beverages pose little health risk? As part of an overall health program, do you address alcohol intake with clients? Send your answers to Sandy Todd Webster @[email protected]
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I have been slowing cutting back alcohol. As of today I’ve successfully quit drinking since November 2019! And even before that I’ve only drank a handful of times.
It’s unnecessary in my life and I enjoy not being around it. Which also means cutting off people who don’t understand and support this decision. At the end of the day I’m the one who has to live with myself.
These studies affirm the risks that common sense has indicated all along.
Invulnerable, entitled, risk takers rationalize alcohol for hedonistic lowering of locus control.
The risks are possible side effects to deal with later, or not at all.
Our culture allows the legal use of alcohol to sedate a % of the population that need an escape from current social pressures. Drinking is baked into our society. It is here and not going anywhere soon. Each individual will have to make informed rationalizations.
It would be interesting to see studies comparing the effects of clean-craft wine/alcohol vs the mass-produced versions which contain all the synthetic pesticides, added sugars, high sulfites and chemical additives. Since discovering clean-crafted wine a little over a year ago, that’s now the only alcohol I consume when I do choose to drink.
Would love to check out these clean crafted wines. Do you have a link or the names of the wines? Thanks!
Can Ideafit have a policy to publish articles only with references given?