Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

popsci.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 159 posts

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#141

Post by archagon »

marchenko wrote: post #83
antpls wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously I can't say anything about my own longevity, but over the past few years my alcohol consumption has decreased to virtually zero and I've never felt better. I was never a big drinker, but I would semi-regularly go out and drink a few pints of beer or have wine with dinner. I never intended to cut down on alcohol, but my lifestyle changed, I stopped going out so much, and the drinking went with it. I would…

I maintain that alcohol-free beer is one of the best post-workout drinks available. As I see it, the proper place of alcohol-free beer is not as a replacement for regular beer, but as a replacement for energy drinks and sodas.

I wish somebody would make an alcohol-free IPA that actually tasted like the real thing. Surely possible with Science™?

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#142

Post by mrighele »

DenisM wrote: post #103
mrighele wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I've realised that it makes me feel bad every time. Between not drinking alcohol at all and drinking so much that you feel bad the following day there is a middle ground of drinking moderately. If a low amount still makes you feel bad, drinking alcohol of a better quality can help (there is a huge difference in this regard between really cheap wines and more expensive ones).

It’s also possible that no such middle ground exists, and some people are just less attuned to the hangover effect. Or maybe some people do and some don’t suffer from heightened sensitivity. I don’t see how you can make a blanket assertion that moderate drinking with no ill effect is available to anyone. In fact the topic article describes research suggesting that there is no “good” amount.

> blanket assertion that moderate drinking with no ill effect is available to anyone.

For me if you have ill effects it is no longer moderate drinking. Note that I am talking about short-term effects such as having an hangover, not the long-term issues that are the topic of the "good" amount in the article.

For sure according to my definition for some people such a level may be zero, and in that case they should refrain from drinking, but the person I replied too talked about "a few pints of beer" at a time, not exactly a minimal amount.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#143

Post by negamax »

malvosenior wrote: post #125
negamax wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unperturbed because I know the endgame on this :). World without alcohol is a better world. The arguments about the past. I can list down counter arguments. But that’s not the point. People often respond with emotions about alcohol consumption. Media brainwashing has done its job well.

> World without alcohol is a better world. Not for me. I truly enjoy a good drink with or without friends. It's possible to drink in moderation and enjoy yourself. > Media brainwashing has done its job well. Again, heavy drinking was extremely common well before mass media. I don't think you can pin this particular issue on them.

You are ignoring the fact that our lifestyles have changed completely. We don’t work in the fields and at mercy of cold

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#144

Post by KozmoNau7 »

There has been a rather disturbing post-2000 neo-puritan thing going on for a while now, shaming people for purely personal choices, such as eating meat, smoking, drinking alcohol, enjoying cannabis in various forms, and generally acting in ways that are "impure".

Sure, banning smoking in restaurants makes sense, as it actively ruins the experience for other people. But this whole vegan teetotaler thing is getting extremely aggravating.

Shaming people for enjoying alcohol responsibly is just as bad as shaming people for choosing to not drink. Both groups of shamers need to cut it the hell out.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#145

Post by another-cuppa »

rossdavidh wrote: post #130
another-cuppa wrote: post #47

Obviously I can't say anything about my own longevity, but over the past few years my alcohol consumption has decreased to virtually zero and I've never felt better. I was never a big drinker, but I would semi-regularly go out and drink a few pints of beer or have wine with dinner. I never intended to cut down on alcohol, but my lifestyle changed, I stopped going out so much, and the drinking went with it. I would st…

The USA tried that once, and the results were so horrifically bad that I doubt we will try it again. It resulted in organized crime openly running the cities of Chicago and New York, because they outgunned the cops. It was much like what Columbia was like at the height of their troubles with cocaine druglords. Now there has been a shift in regards to driving while intoxicated, but that happened about 20 years ago, an…

I didn't say anything about making alcohol illegal. I'm completely opposed to the government telling people what they can put inside their bodies.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#146

Post by another-cuppa »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #138
sushid wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment thread just reinforces your argument (my belief as well) that people will go out of their way to try and normalize drinking, just like smoking used to be in the 60s. I get constant questions as well unless I'm babying a random non-alcoholic beverage. I've found that the best non-follow up to "why don't you drink?" is "I used to drink a lot but my doctor told me to try and abstain for my health."

No, the issue is simply that the alcohol intake he describes should not have that big of an impact. A few pints of beer or some wine with dinner should not completely wreck the day after, unless there is some medical condition that is worsening the effect. Personally, I don't care of people drink or not, that's their choice. What I'm saying is that his intake was probably heavier than he claims, which would certainly…

My intake was not heavier than I claimed. If you read my post again you'll see that I went for complete abstinence only after drinking became an occasional thing for me. When you drink a few pints of beer once after a month or more of no drinking it has a massive effect.

People disputing this have probably never gone more than a week without alcohol. I'm not prepared to maintain a tolerance to alcohol and it makes me feel bad when I drink occasionally.

All I'm claiming is that a literal poison has a negative effect on me that far outweighs any positive I get from the enjoyment of drinking. Yet people are jumping up in arms saying there must be something wrong with me because they drink regularly and feel fine. I think people could do with some careful introspection and maybe to reconsider what "fine" is.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#147

Post by malvosenior »

negamax wrote: post #143
malvosenior wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> World without alcohol is a better world. Not for me. I truly enjoy a good drink with or without friends. It's possible to drink in moderation and enjoy yourself. > Media brainwashing has done its job well. Again, heavy drinking was extremely common well before mass media. I don't think you can pin this particular issue on them.

You are ignoring the fact that our lifestyles have changed completely. We don’t work in the fields and at mercy of cold

How am I ignoring that? I'm saying I actually like a drink now and then. Honestly, your argument seems all over the place.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#148

Post by thrownaway954 »

jMyles wrote: post #23
thrownaway954 wrote: post #18

because more people are becoming alcoholics and the penalties for a DWI are getting harsher. bottom line is... if you think you have a problem, you already have a problem. Get help and get help now before you hurt someone (you don't want this on your conscience... trust me). Go to AA, NA, a therapist, a doctor, rehab, a detox, doesn't matter, open up and tell someone you have a problem and get the help you need befor…

> because more people are becoming alcoholics Do you have a source for this claim, which both does a good job of defining a measurement schema for alcoholism and also shows convincingly that it is on the incline? Do you also have a source for the claim that this particular increase is the reason (or even a contributing factor) to the apparent decline in correlation between moderate wine consumption and positive healt…

you got a lot of underline anger, hope you get help for it.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#149

Post by notyourday »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #139
notyourday wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. The more you drink the more you can drink. If you either gradually or cold turkey quit for a few months to reset, you would be amazed how less alcohol you would need to feel smashed. From my understanding it is basically training your liver and kidneys. It is also quite funny: anesthesiologists always know who lies on the intake forms based on the answer to alcohol consumption question. The more the…

Sure, you can build a tolerance, but "a few pints" or "wine with dinner" occasionally will not do it to any noticable degree.

That's not correct. The point is that with no tolerance for alcohol a few pints or a glass of wine with dinner can have an enormous effect for someone who in general eats very clean and does not drink/stopped drinking for a while.

It is a very observable thing in among the healthy living crowd: August and September are popular abstain from drinking months in these circles. Meeting these people for dinner in October pretty much means they would be visibly buzzed after a glass or two of wine.

Re: Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

#150

Post by rossdavidh »

another-cuppa wrote: post #145
rossdavidh wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA tried that once, and the results were so horrifically bad that I doubt we will try it again. It resulted in organized crime openly running the cities of Chicago and New York, because they outgunned the cops. It was much like what Columbia was like at the height of their troubles with cocaine druglords. Now there has been a shift in regards to driving while intoxicated, but that happened about 20 years ago, an…

I didn't say anything about making alcohol illegal. I'm completely opposed to the government telling people what they can put inside their bodies.

Aha, I misunderstood, sorry.
Post reply on HN