Moderate drinking much worse than expected

A persistent myth is that a glass of alcohol from time to time is not harmful and even healthy for you. A new analysis of more than 100 studies shows the opposite.

It is well known that alcohol is not good for the body and mind. Yet it was long thought that moderate drinking has little or no health consequences. Who doesn't know the story that a glass of red wine is even beneficial for health? From one new study, based on 40 years of research among 5 million participants conducted by Canadian scientists, shows that the risk of premature death increases significantly for women as soon as they drink 25 grams of alcohol per day. The risks for men increase with 45 grams of alcohol.

Old studies new results

Old reports showed that moderate drinkers are less likely to die. Now it appears that the cause of this has nothing to do with alcohol consumption. Most of the old studies were observational. This means that scientists studied a lot of data and drew conclusions from it. They often did not take into account other factors that can influence health. For example, many old studies failed to recognize that some drinkers also exercise regularly and eat healthily. Or that non-drinkers may have consumed a lot of alcohol in the past.

Other reasons questioning old results:

• Complete alcohol abstainers are a minority
• Non-drinkers tend to be poorer (fewer opportunities to implement healthier lifestyles)
• Moderate drinkers are richer, exercise more often, eat healthier and are less likely to be overweight

It is because of these misconceptions that myths such as 'a glass of red wine is healthy' have taken hold in how we think about alcohol. Source: want.nl.

Aside from the fact that new studies shed a different light on moderate drinking, all scientists agree on one thing: drinking alcohol is never the way to work on your health. There are much more effective solutions. For example: enough exercise, healthy eating or quitting smoking. Do you do all that? Then you reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease with no less than 84%. Bam! No alcoholic drink can surpass that score.