May I register a dissenting opinion on Mark Bernstein ’83’s engaging portrait of oenophile Katy Andersen Keating ’08? Striving for improved cardiac health, I dutifully drank a glass of wine every day, for years. Until I turned 75 two years ago and heard an investigative report about the successful efforts of the alcohol industry to hoodwink us into thinking alcohol is good for us. Basically, no, it’s not. In the 1950s, the tobacco industry made similar false claims about smoking.
The studies that claimed to prove this benefit of alcohol were poorly designed, excluding, for example, those with chronic liver disease who wisely abstained and often had reduced life expectancies. Many of the studies were funded by the very alcohol industry that stood to benefit from the misleading “evidence” about alcohol’s health benefits. In my view, the industry’s reason for falsely claiming moderate drinking is good for us is that many customers would progress to heavy drinking, generating more profits.
So let’s celebrate the wise Americans who have begun abstaining from alcohol.
How about the ancients and wine? Katy cites the Romans’ wine consumption. But many people don’t realize they used it as a pleasant-tasting disinfectant, making their water safer to drink by killing pathogens. I’m all in favor of emulating the ancients’ best traits. So ponder the fact that they regarded drinking undiluted wine as barbaric. Yes, they did pour undiluted wine onto the ground or an altar in honor of Bacchus, for example. But the immortals could handle their liquor better.
We know alcohol is a neurotoxin. That’s why small amounts are inebriating. It’s also why larger amounts over the years reduce life expectancy.
The Surgeon General’s office has dropped its guidance that two drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women, are safe. Bottom line (as confirmed by OpenEvidence, an excellent AI platform for physicians), no amount of alcohol is safe.
Yes, I realize I risk making myself unpopular. But I have too many friends who have died or developed dementia, in part because of what they assumed was a safe level of drinking.
May I register a dissenting opinion on Mark Bernstein ’83’s engaging portrait of oenophile Katy Andersen Keating ’08? Striving for improved cardiac health, I dutifully drank a glass of wine every day, for years. Until I turned 75 two years ago and heard an investigative report about the successful efforts of the alcohol industry to hoodwink us into thinking alcohol is good for us. Basically, no, it’s not. In the 1950s, the tobacco industry made similar false claims about smoking.
The studies that claimed to prove this benefit of alcohol were poorly designed, excluding, for example, those with chronic liver disease who wisely abstained and often had reduced life expectancies. Many of the studies were funded by the very alcohol industry that stood to benefit from the misleading “evidence” about alcohol’s health benefits. In my view, the industry’s reason for falsely claiming moderate drinking is good for us is that many customers would progress to heavy drinking, generating more profits.
So let’s celebrate the wise Americans who have begun abstaining from alcohol.
How about the ancients and wine? Katy cites the Romans’ wine consumption. But many people don’t realize they used it as a pleasant-tasting disinfectant, making their water safer to drink by killing pathogens. I’m all in favor of emulating the ancients’ best traits. So ponder the fact that they regarded drinking undiluted wine as barbaric. Yes, they did pour undiluted wine onto the ground or an altar in honor of Bacchus, for example. But the immortals could handle their liquor better.
We know alcohol is a neurotoxin. That’s why small amounts are inebriating. It’s also why larger amounts over the years reduce life expectancy.
The Surgeon General’s office has dropped its guidance that two drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women, are safe. Bottom line (as confirmed by OpenEvidence, an excellent AI platform for physicians), no amount of alcohol is safe.
Yes, I realize I risk making myself unpopular. But I have too many friends who have died or developed dementia, in part because of what they assumed was a safe level of drinking.
Live long and prosper!