This isn’t the first time you’ve heard this but it bears repeating. Alcohol, in moderation, is part of a healthy lifestyle. The latest proof comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—your go-to source for health information—which puts alcohol up there with diet, exercise and never smoking as behaviors that cut mortality rates.
If you want to know the ins-and-outs, read the study. But know that it’s a big study, based on 20,000 initial interviews and more than 16,000 follow-ups over a decade later. And they do mean moderate use: 60 drinks a month for men and 30 for women.
So, to repeat, the CDC isn’t saying a little wine or beer is an acceptable risk. It isn’t saying that wine or beer is a neutral behavior that won’t hurt or help you (like eating celery or reading Parade magazine). The CDC is saying that your libation (in moderation) is up there with diet and exercise. It’s that important. It’s more important (for your mortality) than all the other things they didn’t include. Like keeping a super-clean house. Or finishing that volume of Proust that you bought in as moment of foolish ambition. Or putting those VHS tapes onto DVDs. Or not drinking wine.
And to re-repeat the moderation message: the CDC considers excessive alcohol use a high-risk behavior. But the folks at Wine Spectator, who read the study, point out that “no alcohol intake” is also considered high-risk.
The world: like a foggy morning, in the fall, in canoe country. So many captivating shades of gray.
(UPDATE: The instant this was published, the wires began humming with another study on the benefits of moderate alcohol use, this one from Harvard. Another big study, and more results that are pretty clear on the benefits, according to CNN: “Compared with teetotalers, those [women] who averaged roughly three to 15 alcoholic drinks per week in their late 50s had up to 28% higher odds of being free from chronic illness, physical disability, mental health problems, and cognitive decline at age 70.”)
Photo by Fabio Ingrosso (Flickr: Vinitaly, bottiglia di vino) via Wikimedia Commons
