My purely observational take on this: moderate drinking itself is the myth: most people who drink daily do not drink in anything resembling moderate amounts, especially as the years go by.
Really? I have plenty of friends who have a glass of wine (or scotch) a night; Are you saying that strikes you as an uncommon phenomenon?
Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
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Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#12Every time some statistical "studies" come out I think of which industry is going to benefit from it.
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#13My purely observational take on this: moderate drinking itself is the myth: most people who drink daily do not drink in anything resembling moderate amounts, especially as the years go by.
My anecdotal observations actually show the opposite, most pleople drink less as years go by.
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#14My purely observational take on this: moderate drinking itself is the myth: most people who drink daily do not drink in anything resembling moderate amounts, especially as the years go by.
I do a dry week without alcohol every once in a while just to make sure I can.
I find doing a dry week without alcohol the same difficulty as dry week without diet Coke. Which is to say I like diet Coke a lot and both require effort. You get things like hey wouldn't a diet Coke be nice, and then have to remember you aren't drinking that now and then the thought will repeat several times in a fairly small time window.
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? I have plenty of friends who have a glass of wine (or scotch) a night; Are you saying that strikes you as an uncommon phenomenon?
Are you sure it's just a glass? I started like that and atleast in my case, I very much progressed far beyond moderate amounts in the span of 3 years.
I think the most common forms of drinking are 0 or , but there are at least some people that moderate (I do).
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#16It's worth noting that even if there's no health benefit to regular moderate drinking, there's no argument made here that there's necessarily harm from regular moderate drinking. So maybe the takeaway is simply that if you choose to drink moderately, don't pat yourself on the back.
Actually it is making such an argument: "Occam’s Razor argues for a simple theory: the net marginal impact of drinking on health is negative at all levels" They don't provide definitive proof, but that is their argument.
It may certainly be true that alcohol is a net negative in any amount, but it would be in lots of good company if it turns out that small amounts of alcohol are indeed healthy.
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#17Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#18It's worth noting that even if there's no health benefit to regular moderate drinking, there's no argument made here that there's necessarily harm from regular moderate drinking. So maybe the takeaway is simply that if you choose to drink moderately, don't pat yourself on the back.
The decreased risk group were suggesting that upto 6 drinks per day were linked to lower risks than teetotalism even when you adjust for chronically ill teetotalers (ie people who no longer drink because they've destroyed their liver).
A US standard drink is 18 ml of alcohol so six of those a day is quite a lot.
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#19It's worth noting that even if there's no health benefit to regular moderate drinking, there's no argument made here that there's necessarily harm from regular moderate drinking. So maybe the takeaway is simply that if you choose to drink moderately, don't pat yourself on the back.
Actually it is making such an argument: "Occam’s Razor argues for a simple theory: the net marginal impact of drinking on health is negative at all levels" They don't provide definitive proof, but that is their argument.
Re: Are the benefits of moderate drinking a myth?
#20Here is a link to one of the studies he cites:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12519921
Does this study not constitute a randomized trial on the benefit of moderate drinking?