How much alcohol is acceptable? How many drinks are OK? More musings on moderate alcohol consumption – and I call out the WHO for its anti-science propaganda.
“There is no safe level of driving, but governments do not recommend that people avoid driving. Come to think of it, there is no safe level of living, but nobody would recommend abstention.”
Prof. David Spiegelhalter, University of Cambridge
Drink-driving: Never OK
Before I go on (and on, and on), let me get this out of the way.
In the previous millennium, I and many other South Africans would routinely take the wheel after a night of drinking.
I like to joke that if you could manage to find your car, you could drive it. Sure, I always knew intellectually that driving after imbibing a skinful was not only illegal but immoral; but it took me a long time to internalise that knowledge. Shameful, but true.
Historically Speaking
“Wine is a wonderfully appropriate thing for man if, in health as well as in disease, it is administered wisely and justly.” Hippocrates (460-370 BC)
Hippocrates, Father of Medicine…
Wine plays an important role in almost all the medicines Hippocrates handed down. In his work Corpus Hippocraticum (thought to be a collection of both his writings and those of his students and followers), the health aspects of drinking wine are pointed out in the form of numerous therapeutic recommendations.
… and even before him
But wine goes back way beyond Ancient Greece. Evidence of wine production has been found in both China (c. 7000 BC) and Georgia (c. 6000 BC).
Many anthropologists think that the ability to ferment beverages was a major reason for establishing settled communities in the first place.
“We domesticated grains so that we could mash them up and let them transform into intoxicating liquids that would bring us together,” said scientist Patrick McGovern, part of the research team that analysed evidence of Neolithic (Stone Age) wine-making sites in Georgia. (Click here for the National Geographic article.)
Alcohol is central to human culture and biology because we were probably drinking fermented beverages from the beginning – and while drinking too much is clearly unhealthy, some form of drinking, especially socially or to celebrate an occasion, seems intrinsic to human nature.
More recent anthropological evidence of wine used in a celebratory context
Research: Yay-sayers
And here’s a handful of findings in favour of red wine, discussed on studyfinds.com:
- Occasional red wine drinkers have increased gut microbiome diversity compared to non-drinkers or drinkers of other alcohol – possibly due to polyphenols.
- Drinking red wine with dinner reduces blood sugar levels, helping to ward off diabetes.
- Red wine and other flavenoid-rich foods can reduce high blood pressure.
- Drinking wine with cheese delivers improved cognitive health as you age.
- Resveratrol, a polyphenol found in red wine, is anti-inflammatory and may protect from loss of muscle mass and bone density.
(Granted, there are numerous studies warning about the dangers of any amount of alcohol, especially after the publication of the WHO’s preposterous guidelines to journalists on how to report any research findings on alcohol, detailed below.)
WHO’s Lying to You?
Have institutions like the WHO (World Health Organisation), governments and pharmaceutical companies always lied to us so brazenly? Maybe yes.
As mentioned in Part One, there’s been a strong recent backlash against alcohol, at least partly fuelled by a particular WHO report that tells journalists how to report any alcohol-related research. To me at least, it’s not clear why they’d want to cause the pendulum to swing so violently against any level of drinking alcohol.
(As opposed to, say, banning genuinely safe and effective drugs like Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, together with dissing vitamins and anything else that might threaten the trillions that were going to be made from an experimental gene therapy already waiting in the wings. That is clear.)
Anyway, according to the WHO, it has now been determined that alcohol is dangerous for health taken in any amount and however rarely. “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for health,” it declared in a January 2023 news release.
On 15 April 2023, this un-appointed, unelected and deeply suspect global nanny published a piece titled Reporting About Alcohol: A Guide for Journalists – clearly aimed at setting the media narrative on drinking alcohol. As Ramesh Thakur points out in his recent op-ed piece titled The Woke Health Organisation?, these guidelines replicate the three key elements of the weaponisation of COV!D: scaremongering, shaming, and controlling the media narrative.
Heres a link to the landing page for the WHO guidelines.
It would be a grave mistake to accept that “the science” is settled – no matter how often or loudly they say it. The whole point of the scientific process is that it is never settled: it is always open to question, debate and research. Otherwise, the various lines we’re being fed nowadays by government and the media are not only not science, they’re almost certainly propaganda.
It’s not just me and Ramesh, I’m happy to say. Look at this detailed and scathing criticism from The Snowdon Substack, which describes this nasty little tract as “a catalogue of anti-drinking tropes, half-truths and brazen lies”.
What’s the problem with apparently harmless “guidelines” like these? They’re voluntary, right? Just suggestions? No. In my opinion, the real danger is media publishers signing up to the guidelines, which then become de facto regulations that journalists have to abide by – or be censored for misinformation.
What about Freedom of Choice?
So, the global COV!D agenda has succeeded beautifully in conditioning much of the population to accept that public health and safety overrides everything else. Does it? Whatever happened to liberty, free thinking and individual responsibility to make lifestyle choices?
Moreover, what’s lost in the joyless diktats of the WHO is an appreciation of the difference between living life to the full and merely existing. Responding to a 2018 global study concluding that no amount of alcohol is safe, University of Cambridge professor David Spiegelhalter said that was no reason for people to stop drinking altogether:
“There is no safe level of driving, but governments do not recommend that people avoid driving,” Spiegelhalter told the BBC. “Come to think of it, there is no safe level of living, but nobody would recommend abstention.”
The Gospel According to Ben: “Moderate drinking still OK”
Several of the biohacking and alternative health podcasters I listen to have started repeating Andrew Huberman’s sobering line: one drink a week OK, no drinks better. (See Part One.) Much as I love these few dozen individuals, they sometimes create a too-cosy echo-chamber.
I admit I was starting to panic a bit, though; then I heard Ben Greenfield’s recent podcast Q&A 457, titled “The Truth About Alcohol”. (Note that Ben is a practising and vocal Christian, which, on the basis of his intelligence, good looks and soothing voice, we won’t hold against him.)
He refers to an April 2023 article by Brady Homer, titled “Moderate Drinking is Still OK”, which argues that the current “war on alcohol” may not be justified. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t read the article without paying to subscribe to Brady’s Substack.)
Ben says it’s about the latest and biggest meta-study to date (a systematic assessment of multiple existing research studies), which shows that . According to its findings, moderate drinking is not associated with an increased risk for “all-cause mortality”. So, at any point, the risk of dying from anything is similar for those who drink low to moderate amounts of alcohol and those who drink no alcohol at all.
Main findings
What does low-to-moderate mean? It means anything from “one drink per week to up to three drinks per day”. And once you exceed that, all-cause mortality absolutely does increase. The meta-study further found that:
- Older people (over 50 years old) and women who drank had higher risks of all-cause-mortality.
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Alcohol has no clear life-extending effect, despite suggested cardio-protective benefits of red wine, for example.
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Drinkers are not healthier than non-drinkers; but at the same time, moderate alcohol consumption doesn’t make you less healthy, either.
Basically, this – the biggest meta-study to date, remember – shows that you’re drinking in moderation (two to three drinks for women, three-to-five drinks for men daily) won’t shorten your life.
So if you’re avoiding alcohol to live longer, that may not be necessary. And if you’re drinking alcohol simply to live longer – and that must be an extremely niche population! – it’s not true either.
How much alcohol? – the takeaway message
According to this meta-study, the average woman can drink up to two (or possibly three) standard drinks per day, and a man up to three (and possibly up to five) drinks per day. These are higher numbers than we’ve been hearing for a long time.
My Gut Feeling*
We evolved with alcohol, and drinking behaviours are as old as human civilisation. Enjoying alcohol is therefore part of being human. That said, I’m not convinced that moderate alcohol intake is actually good for health.
It’s possible that some of the studies showing health benefits of drinking are affected by the “healthy user bias”. And that may be because moderate drinkers, as opposed to heavy drinkers or total abstainers, report generally better lifestyle habits: on the whole, they are less likely to smoke, and more likely to exercise and eat vegetables. (Just being more sensible about life and health in general than those with more extreme views?)
* “Gut feeling” as used here is more than an idiom. If I’m going by gut feeling, I should accept that my opinion could be influenced by some of the over 100 trillion micro-organisms that make up my (and your) personal gut microbiome. I already suspect that some of these pushy little critters – probably yeasts – cause my afternoon sugar cravings. So, it’s not impossible that some other microbial species may be implicated in that distinct urge for a G&T at 6pm.
Also, two or three drinks each day, every day, sounds a bit much. My younger body could cope with that and more, but no longer. Nowadays, I still feel good on one or two standard drinks per day, most days… but no more.
Santé!
If you read my other blog, Travels with Verne and Roy, you may know that we sold our replica Dutch barge Karanja in May this year, 2023, in St Jean-de-Losne, France. (Click here for more about that.) The point is, during the handover to the sweet Japanese couple who are her new owners, we came on board to share with them not only a bottle of champagne, but also a bottle of sake … fitting and appropriate.
Bon voyage to them, and santé to us all!
What’s Coming Up?
Most likely a Part 3, because I haven’t even touched on The French Paradox, or on zero-alcohol (ZA) drinks. If you have any thoughts on ZA beer, wine or whatever, I would love to hear them!
