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“Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

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Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#31

Post by throwaway729 »

Swizec wrote: post #23
jasonkostempski wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you got the idea that in the US people really really don't like to drink spirits socially. I'm sure it's different around the country but that's not the case anywhere I've been.

I find that they drink them at clubs but not at home parties. Should've been more clear. And anyway it probably has more to do with age than geography. People don't get as smashed in their late 20's as they do in high school and college when drinking is more like a competition on who can get the most drunk the fastest. Or maybe I'm just going to the wrong parties. You're right, geography is prob a correlation.

Next time you go to a party at a friend's home, offer to bring some spirits and mixers. Most people stick to beer/wine at self-hosted parties because anything else is a PITA, not because they don't like spirits.

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#32

Post by matwood »

vazamb wrote: post #8
_m8fo wrote: post #5

I've never drank before, so I'm a terrible person to comment about this: but what exactly is the supposed benefit of drinking? I go to dinner parties, clubs, etc. and it seems that alcohol is everywhere. People mention that its social lubricant, but I just don't get it. I've had great times with groups that don't drink any alcohol: sometimes we just eat great food, play games, etc. I've had similar experiences with m…

As a non drinker you probably don't like the taste of any or most alcoholic beverages. Whether it is conditioning or not, I do enjoy the taste of a good beer. There is not more 'benefit' to it than eating good food.

Yeah, I also enjoy a good beer and also a nice glass of wine with a meal. Wine in particular does a great job at complementing food.

I also have the self discipline to have one beer or one glass of wine, while many do not. If one beer always led to a 6-pack I would stop drinking.

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#33

Post by yk »

With all the qualifiers I am tempted to interpret the study as, you can be as healthy as a moderate drinker even without alcohol. (I am only half joking, there are just so many variables and number-of-variables-squared trade offs involved in these health and food studies that one wonders how they ever established a link between arsenic and poor health.)

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#34

Post by droopyEyelids »

jimrandomh wrote: post #29

A lot of research has shown supposed health benefits of alcohol, but it all has something in common: it's based entirely on observational data, with no intervention performed. Observational studies have an extremely poor track record in health and especially in nutrition, and are not experiments, but they get reported as though they were science. So we get reversals like this one. (Which was entirely expected.)

Thank you, I hadn't known there was a distinction between "observational" and "interventional" studies, but now it seems like an important idea I could use to parse all the pop science that people talk about all day.

http://www.isupportresearch.com/whats-the-difference-between... (short definitions)

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#35

Post by matwood »

Swizec wrote: post #12
_m8fo wrote: post #5

I've never drank before, so I'm a terrible person to comment about this: but what exactly is the supposed benefit of drinking? I go to dinner parties, clubs, etc. and it seems that alcohol is everywhere. People mention that its social lubricant, but I just don't get it. I've had great times with groups that don't drink any alcohol: sometimes we just eat great food, play games, etc. I've had similar experiences with m…

Can confirm. Being the only nondrinket at a party sucks. Everyone becomes a strange kind of boring where the stupidest things entertain them and you just can't see it. Happens to me a lot because I don't like wine and beer and it seems that in the US people really really don't like to drink spirits socially. Or even to mix their own cocktails. Sometimes I miss parties with my slavic friends where we go through bottle…

Not sure where you live, but if you head on down to the south nearly everyone has bourbon.

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#36

Post by freecodyx »

matwood wrote: post #24
freecodyx wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried once(Vodka), and i regret it. awful taste. vomits everywhere, felt bad, the next day is a mess. I'll stack with weed. (especially that i am from Morocco, we have good weed and Hash)

You clearly didn't just 'try' Vodka if you were vomiting. You drank to excess.

5 small cups... i don't think it's excess. but maybe because it was my first time, i was worried of losing control (i remember i did 40 pushups to prove to my friend i still in control). Anyway never tried again. i hate it

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#38

Post by mhurron »

CM30 wrote: post #21

Honestly, with all this stuff about whether drinking or whatever is or isn't good for you, part of me wonders why I should even care any more. I mean, it's pretty clear that genetics have a huge impact in how long you live regardless of what your lifestyle is like, and it's also clear that the advice seems to change every few years anyway. May as well just live how you like and deal with things as they come. And if t…

> it's pretty clear that genetics have a huge impact in how long you live regardless of what your lifestyle is like

Because healthy eating and habits improve the quality of the life during the quantity your genetics give you.

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#39

Post by syphilis2 »

The CDC and ODPHP (US agency that sets dietary guidelines) do not recommend non-drinkers start drinking moderately, which is in line with the research which shows no health benefit to drinking alcohol. It's a bit scary how research+media+people's love of alcohol work together to spread the fiction of alcohol health benefits.

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/ Appendix 9 or https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm

Re: “Health benefits” of moderate drinking disappear when controlling for wealth

#40

Post by giardini »

_m8fo wrote: post #5

I've never drank before, so I'm a terrible person to comment about this: but what exactly is the supposed benefit of drinking? I go to dinner parties, clubs, etc. and it seems that alcohol is everywhere. People mention that its social lubricant, but I just don't get it. I've had great times with groups that don't drink any alcohol: sometimes we just eat great food, play games, etc. I've had similar experiences with m…

I second randlet's and aetherson's posts.

A warning ( and possible reason to _never_ drink): some who have a tendency toward alcoholism may enjoy drinking much more than the rest of us. Some alcoholic authors' descriptions of the allure of alcohol are quite striking.

My experience: one drink relaxes me - more makes me ill. I enjoy a drink in social company. My linguistic faculty (esp. foreign languages)(no pun intended) _seem_ to improve under the influence, but maybe that's the liquor speaking! I like many of the sayings associated with social drinking, e.g.,

"In vino veritas!"

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