A glass of wine at the end of a long day helps melt away stress and heightens the pleasure of a meal. And the good news is, for most people, wine—or any alcohol in moderation—can actually be beneficial to health.
You’ve no doubt heard about the “French paradox”—the unexpectedly low rate of heart disease in France, despite a diet famous for its fatty foods. Researchers pointed to the red wine in the diet as the explanation. Yes and no. It’s a combination of that, and the overall lifestyle and diet in parts of France, especially in the South, where the style of eating is more typically Mediterranean.
But there is more than a drop of truth to the red wine theory. Studies have shown that moderate consumption of alcohol—and not just red wine, but white wine, spirits, beer, and any beverage containing alcohol, does protect against heart disease and ischemic strokes, and there is increasing evidence suggesting that it also protects against diabetes, gallstones, and kidney cancer. Drinking alcohol raises levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and reduces the formation of arterial blood clots, which can cause heart attacks.
Men who have one or two alcoholic drinks a day are 30 to 40 percent less likely to have heart attacks than men who don’t drink alcohol. The same benefits apply to women, though studies have also shown that one to two drinks a day can increase the risk of developing breast cancer. This is particularly true for women who don’t get enough of the B vitamin known as folic acid in their diets. The same applies to colon cancer for both men and women—the increased risk with alcohol consumption seems to occur mainly among people whose diet is low in folic acid. So taking a multivitamin that contains folic acid is particularly important for people who drink alcohol.
Quantifying “moderation” is tricky, because so many factors come into play. But as a general guideline for healthy adults with no family history of alcoholism, moderation means up to two drinks a day for men and one for women and older people. (Women appear to metabolize alcohol less rapidly, and are, on average, smaller.)
As far as lowering the risk of heart disease is concerned, the benefits of consuming moderate amounts of alcohol appear to be consistent whether it is consumed with food or not. But establishing a pattern of drinking alcohol primarily with meals may help encourage moderation in general.
Alcohol does, of course, present risks. It is addictive, especially in people who have a family history of alcoholism. It’s the cause of about a third of traffic fatalities. And excessive drinking is a major cause of preventable deaths from liver disease, a variety of cancers, high blood pressure, and a progressive weakening of the heart and other muscles. Even at moderate levels, alcohol impairs judgment and slows reaction time. It can disrupt healthy sleep. And it interacts in potentially dangerous ways with a variety of medications, including acetaminophen (i. e., Tylenol), antidepressants, and other drugs.
Alcohol offers little benefit and adds potential risk to pregnant women and their unborn children, and to people with liver disease. For anyone under forty, its health benefits are negligible because the risk of heart disease is low at that age.
But despite all that, alcohol in moderation can be helpful. If you’re a man with no history of alcoholism who is at moderate to high risk for heart disease, a daily alcoholic drink will reduce that risk. If you are a woman with no history of alcoholism, remember that even a drink a day can increase your risk of breast cancer, but keep in mind, also, that a daily supplement of folic acid (as part of a multivitamin supplement) appears to prevent that increased risk. And if you’re someone who can’t seem to raise their HDL cholesterol level to where it should be despite a healthy diet and exercise, a drink or two a day may be particularly beneficial.
If you already drink alcohol, do keep it moderate. If you don’t, don’t feel you need to start. You can get similar benefits just by beginning to exercise or by upping the intensity and duration of your exercise program. No book can give you definitive answers about how much alcohol is right for you. As with all important diet and lifestyle decisions, it’s a good idea to talk to your health-care provider about how your personal history and health concerns fit into the picture. Cheers!