All Alcohol is Bad, Eh?

Perhaps you’ve read “Should You Change Your Wine Consumption?” by Eric Asimov, the longtime wine scribe for The New York Times, who summarizes how most of us wine pros feel in the wake of the sudden declaration of all booze consumption as dangerous:  “The surgeon general’s warning suggested that I’ve not only been engaging in risky behavior but recommending it to others as well. I felt bad, and defensive. How could this beautiful beverage that I love be considered hazardous when consumed in a thoughtful, careful way? Does that make me the equivalent of a drug pusher? Why single out alcoholic beverages? What about the risks of sugary soft drinks or ultraprocessed foods?” 

Asimov goes on to state what reasonable folks have likely been pondering since the ‘Booze=BAD’ media coverage began: “Out-of-control consumption can be a menace, posing dangers to oneself and to society. That can’t be ignored. But neither can the social, emotional and aesthetic joys that wine and other alcoholic beverages have provided for centuries. These can’t entirely be dismissed.”

He’s right; alcohol’s more salubrious effects cannot be entirely dismissed, precisely for the very same reason that its ills cannot be ignored, either: they are backed by rigorous scientific and medical findings. If there’s a TL;DR takeaway from our little diatribe here, it’s this: moderate drinking of alcohol has some benefits that didn’t just go away all of a sudden.

Back to that hard science: there’s a stellar presentation available online from Dr. Laura Catena, who not only is the fourth generation vintner behind Argentina’s Catena Zapata, but also happens to be a Harvard-trained biologist with a medical degree from Stanford. This places her at a unique nexus of the two “sides” of this issue.

Unsurprisingly, Catena has much to say about the topic of alcohol’s health pitfalls and benefits. Here are a few of the highlights of alcohol’s health benefits(taken both from her presentation and from conversations we’ve had with her), all backed up by medical research:

Moderate drinking has been linked to a 20-40% reduction in  major adverse cardiac events and lower stress levels overall; can raise HDL (“good” ) cholesterol, might help prevent plaque formation in the bloodstream, and helps lower blood glucose levels and reduce Type 2 diabetes risk.

According to research cited by Catena, moderate alcohol consumption might also lower risks of thyroid and kidney cancers, as well the risk of as of hematologic malignancies. Catena cites that some studies suggest cognitive benefits (like reduced cognitive decline) from the occasional sip or two, as well. 

For you “bUt fOlLoW tHe mOnEy!!” conspiracy theorists out there: over 80% of these studies were not funded by the booze industry.

Here’s where the rubber hits the road: alcohol consumption has been shown to potentially increase the risks of some cancers, like mouth, throat, esophageal, breast (in women), liver, and colorectal. If that’s true even for moderate consumption, then, yes, we ought to be concerned about that.