There’s nothing like a scientific discovery that validates our most devious excesses. Is red wine really good for the heart? And do we pour ourselves another Bordeaux or not?
The idea that a small drink a day is good for you is a belief that tends to stick in our minds, mostly because we really hope it’s true, not just because most people want live a long time, but also because we like to drink.
However, since alcohol abuse is bad for your health (it cannot be repeated enough), the drink-a-day theory can now be considered an incorrect belief. Although alcohol is not good for the body, it is probably best not to drink anything at all. However, there are ways to reduce the risk of disease if one drinks in moderation.
First news, a glass a day, even of red wine, will not make you live longer. A systematic review published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that “low-volume alcohol consumption was not associated with protection against all-cause mortality.” In other words, a glass a day, even of red wine, will not make you live longer.
This conclusion is based on the analysis of 107 cohort studies involving more than 4.8 million participants and is part of a series of studies that came to roughly the same results.
There has been a major shift over the past six or seven years in how we think about the so-called health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. In the older studies, dating back 10 years or more, one could see, due to some suboptimal methodologies, that studies suggested that there might be cardiovascular benefits from alcohol consumption. in small quantities. Over the past 10 years, that idea is fading. It has been refuted in study after study because we are now able to conduct higher quality studies.
But what about all those heart-healthy benefits of polyphenols and antioxidants and tannins in wine? “I don’t think there’s any scientific evidence to support this,” says Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis of the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Health.
That’s why Canada recently reduced the number of standard recommended drinks per week to two, due to growing evidence of alcohol’s harms, including links to certain cancers. “The Canadian guidelines have been criticized for being unrealistic,” says the professor. “We have to recognize that alcohol is an integral part of our social life. We are not talking about demonizing alcohol and advocating abstinence. There is no doubt that this would alienate many people in terms of the health message. “
The JAMA study found that those who didn’t drink lived longer. Consistent with this, the JAMA study showed that alcohol consumption was associated with “a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality” and that those who did not drink lived longer. The higher risk of mortality appeared in women if consumption was two or more drinks per day, while for men, three or four drinks per day constituted the danger threshold.
So if you like to drink but want to manage the risks associated with moderate alcohol consumption, Professor Stamatakis advises to follow a diet of abstinence four to five days a week. And when you pour yourself a drink, make sure you only have one or two glasses, and never more than four at a time.