Every once in a while, you hear someone talking about how drinking in moderation is actually healthy. It makes you think that drinking a glass of merlot everyday will somehow make you healthier. Drinking in moderation is defined as having two drinks per day for men and one for women. For more than a decade this “healthy” habit has been touted by doctors and even health gurus for lowering the risk of heart diseases, improve libido, and even lower the chances of diabetes.
Is that really true? Can drinking in limitation make you healthier or live longer? That’s exactly what we are going to cover in this post.
First Things First, Binge Drinking is Not Good
While people may debate if drinking in moderation is good or not, there is no debate that drinking excessively is bad for you. Alcohol abuse (drinking too much in one sitting) or alcoholism (frequent alcohol abuse) can have a severely detrimental effect on your health.
What About Moderate Drinking?
There are studies that lend their support to drinking in moderation. These studies suggest that drinking a little bit everyday can improve heart health, lower the chances of diabetes, and have other smaller health benefits.
Many studies suggest that drinking a few glasses, especially wine, can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Even major health organizations such as the European Heart Journal and the American Journal of Nutrition have suggested that the habit of drinking in less quantity is healthy.
Here’s the problem with most of these studies. Many of these studies are observational in nature and they fail to factor in a lot of other parameters that may be causing the positive health benefits. In other words, there is simply not enough data collected to conclusively prove that the benefits are caused by drinking in moderation. The lack of control amongst the participants of the studies means that anything from good genes to healthy diet can be the true cause of the health benefits. In fact, a particular 2016 analysis of 87 such studies found that most of these studies had serious design flaws. The analysis went on to conclude that there is no concrete data to prove that moderate drinking has any positive effect or can improve life expectancy as claimed.
The Negatives of Drinking in Moderation
Drinking in moderation may not be good, but it’s also not bad, right? Well, no. Drinking alcohol, even in limited amounts, puts your health at risk in a few ways.
While one glass of wine can be sufficient for some, others may start to feel the effects of alcohol in low quantities. People with low tolerance levels can experience poor vision, impaired coordination and notice a negative impact on their driving abilities. Because of different tolerance levels, alcohol impacts the nervous system of different individuals differently.
How does alcohol affect the nervous system of two individuals differently? A seasoned drinker can probably stay visibly sober even after downing a half a bottle of whiskey, a quantity that’s enough to get an average person drunk. Women also have a lower tolerance level and thus can feel the negative effects after consuming much lower quantities of alcohol.
It all depends on how well your body digests ethanol. If your body processes ethanol well, then there will be fewer levels of ethanol in the bloodstream and will thus have a mild effect on the nervous system. However, if your body is poor at digesting ethanol, it will result in more ethanol in the blood and thus will cause the negative effects to be felt in much lower quantities. Now, because this ability to process ethanol is different for different individuals, “drinking in moderation” is a vague term at best.
Another important factor that the studies fail to factor in is cancer. There is no denying that drinking raises the risk of cancer. Now, because cancer often takes years, even decades to develop, the studies fail to catch them. Therefore, there is no credible data on the effects of moderate drinking on the development of cancer cells.
Lastly, alcohol is highly addictive. A moderate drinker can transition and become an alcoholic in later years. The addictive nature of alcohol puts the individual at risk of developing a life-altering addiction over time.
The Key Takeaway
We live in a society where drinking the occasional glass of wine or two is often unavoidable. You may even be considered rude if you do not drink in certain social occasions, when someone toasts or when celebrating an achievement.
While drinking during social occasions and in limited quantity is probably fine, it’s important not to try and mask the truth. Alcohol is bad for you. There is no evidence to suggest that it can actually be beneficial in moderation. Till the time, a well-designed study conclusively proves the health benefits of drinking, it’s best to stay informed and avoid drinking as much as possible.
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