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The myth of "healthy moderate drinking" has been completely debunked

Bragr

Banned
TLDR: The alcohol industry has funded biased research for decades to show that some drinking is fine. But in truth, any and all consumption of alcohol is bad. Including having a glass of red wine with your food, which some people still think is healthy.

"For decades, scientific studies suggested moderate drinking was better for most people’s health than not drinking at all, and could even help them live longer."

"A new analysis of more than 40 years of research has concluded that many of those studies were flawed and that the opposite is true."

"The moderate alcohol hypothesis has come under increasing criticism over the years as the alcohol industry’s role in funding research has come to light, and newer studies have found that even moderate consumption of alcohol — including red wine — may contribute to cancers of the breast, esophagus and head and neck, high blood pressure and a serious heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation."

"In January, Canada issued new guidelines warning that no amount of alcohol consumption is healthy, and urged people to cut drinking as much as possible."


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/health/alcohol-health-effects.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

 
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Smiggs

Member
Alcohol is toxic, who would have thought? It's literally poison, and that should come to no surprise to anyone with one bit of common sense.

That said, life is too damn short to not enjoy the finer things now and then, and if I want to drink a bunch of beers or some good bourbon on the weekend, then that's my prerogative as an adult. Alcohol is literally interwoven into our culture going back thousands of years, and the idea that we should just cut it out because it's not healthy is fucking absurd. I'm going to enjoy life a little bit, and I'm aware that carries risks. You know what else carries risk? Getting out of bed in the morning, walking out your front porch steps, breathing air, eating basically anything.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
It's poison.

ERkXEja.jpg
 

T4keD0wN

Member
For decades, scientific studies suggested moderate drinking was better for most people’s health than not drinking at all.
Humanity is doomed if an average person is this dumb.

The alcohol industry has funded biased research for decades to show that some drinking is fine. But in truth, all and any consumption of alcohol of bad. Including having a glass of red wine with your food, which some people still think is healthy.
Applaud to the marketing teams. Can we do gemstones next?
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I don't think I've ever heard of "healthy moderate drinking"

Isn't the 'moderate' part predicated on the fact it is understood to be unhealthy in general, and especially unhealthy in excess?
It's very commonly cited that one glass of red wine per day improves longevity thanks to the resveratrol content.

See:

 

Aesius

Member
It makes you wonder how much other bullshit is out there being funded by special interest groups that were being told about that is safe. We probably would be shocked to find out the truth about a lot of things.
It’s actually amazing that cigarettes got the bad rap that they did after being so heavily ingrained in culture for so long. I’d love to know how that actually played out. I guess it was before corporations realized how much they could influence public opinion via lobbyists and biased studies/bought and paid for scientists and research teams.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Newsflash: Nobody gets to live forever.

And the longer you last the more likely it gets that what eventually kills you is going to be something chronic as opposed to acute because in old age its rare there aren't multiple co-morbidities in play on top of the specific cause of that final illness.

Stop worrying, and enjoy life. Have a drink or two for fuck's sake.

Something is eventually going to kill you, and although you can juke the odds a little bit, you can't scratch every possible morbidity off the list.
Especially when so much hinges on things outside of your direct control, like environment or genetics.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Makes sense.

No different than people thinking smoking is good for you just because cigarette companies said so. Ya, inhaling packs of smokes per day is somehow good for you. Name one other kind of smoke when inhaled has even been promoted as healthy. But filling with your lungs with tabbaco smoke is great for lungs. lol

Whether it's alcohol or inhaling smoke, it makes zero sense why any of it would be healthy for you. At best, youre lucky you got a body that is super fit and can brush off booze and smokes and you live to 88.
 
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DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
Alcohol is toxic, who would have thought? It's literally poison, and that should come to no surprise to anyone with one bit of common sense.

That said, life is too damn short to not enjoy the finer things now and then, and if I want to drink a bunch of beers or some good bourbon on the weekend, then that's my prerogative as an adult. Alcohol is literally interwoven into our culture going back thousands of years, and the idea that we should just cut it out because it's not healthy is fucking absurd. I'm going to enjoy life a little bit, and I'm aware that carries risks. You know what else carries risk? Getting out of bed in the morning, walking out your front porch steps, breathing air, eating basically anything.

I agree. Even Jesus and his disciples drank wine. Just don't do it excessively.
 

Mistake

Member
I had a neighbor that smoked every day until 96, even after she was on oxygen. Some people got it, and some don’t. Sure you may do whatever possible to reduce chances and increase your odds, but in the end only you can answer the question “was it worth it?”

That being said, we evolved to process alcohol as a byproduct from eating overripe fruit on the ground (probably.) Even monkeys enjoy a fine drink https://allthatsinteresting.com/drunk-monkeys-st-kitts
 
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Bragr

Banned
That said, life is too damn short to not enjoy the finer things now and then, and if I want to drink a bunch of beers or some good bourbon on the weekend, then that's my prerogative as an adult.
There are many ways to look at this.

Truth is, whatever your prerogative as an adult is, it doesn't govern what society should do. Meaning, of all the thousands of people getting killed by drunk drivers, the hundreds of thousands of extreme incidents happening when people drink from murders to beating their kids, to the significant number of addicts, to all the ills it does to the body, the effects are so big that an individuals prerogative means very little.

The main thing here is that you only enjoy beers and bourbon on the weekends because you have been played your entire life by commercials and because the people around you drink. You never really had a moment where you chose to drink, you start because others do it. Nobody drinks a beer and thinks it tastes great when you are a teenager or whenever you start, rather it gets indoctrinated through culture, and you force it to become something you enjoy as you grow up.

Beer taste like absolute horseshit, but you grew up on the horseshit and have drunk it so much, that now you think you want it. People taste this shit when they are young and fucking throw up but they keep forcing it down until they can drink it without retching. And now grown men think it's some sort of classy thing and comfortable thing to consume the horseshit that they used to puke into a ditch. Jesus christ, we live in such a fucking clown show society.
 

MikeM

Member
Whats next? Obesity is actually terrible and should be combatted extensively and not championed as “body positivity?”

I enjoy my beer once a week. Never more- makes me appreciate it.
 

Wildebeest

Member
Saying that alcohol is bad for you is more complicated than you think because different drinks are full of various different things you wouldn't normally want to consume. You have some very high calorie drinks. Spirits aged in wood for the flavour profile, and when was the last time you chewed down on some old cancerous wood for health reasons. Wines typically contain a lot of sulfites and other substances as preservatives. There was even a scandal where some were caught adding antifreeze to their wine.
 

Pejo

Member
I also read a recent study that drinking water from soft plastic and hard plastic bottles are both bad for you, since they introduce microplastics into your system and have been correlated to reduced sperm count in males.

I think there's just a time where you have to just accept that from the day you're born you start dying, and pick what goes into your body on your own terms.

I don't think anybody was truly fooled into thinking that alcohol, even in small amounts, was genuinely good for you. For me, it's the numbing effect to my body and my brain that makes me enjoy it, taste/benefits/detriments be damned.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I also read a recent study that drinking water from soft plastic and hard plastic bottles are both bad for you, since they introduce microplastics into your system and have been correlated to reduced sperm count in males.

I think there's just a time where you have to just accept that from the day you're born you start dying, and pick what goes into your body on your own terms.

I don't think anybody was truly fooled into thinking that alcohol, even in small amounts, was genuinely good for you. For me, it's the numbing effect to my body and my brain that makes me enjoy it, taste/benefits/detriments be damned.
Phthalates. Potentially a major reason why testosterone levels in men have dropped an insane amount over the past 75 years. Continuous daily exposure to plastic packaging and plastic bottles.

phF00SO.png
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I also read a recent study that drinking water from soft plastic and hard plastic bottles are both bad for you, since they introduce microplastics into your system and have been correlated to reduced sperm count in males.

I think there's just a time where you have to just accept that from the day you're born you start dying, and pick what goes into your body on your own terms.

I don't think anybody was truly fooled into thinking that alcohol, even in small amounts, was genuinely good for you. For me, it's the numbing effect to my body and my brain that makes me enjoy it, taste/benefits/detriments be damned.
Agreed.

Going ape shit on risky stuff is one thing, but living in a bubble is another. People in western countries (and beyond that too) live to around 75-80 years old on average. That's pretty good considering how the media and scientists say everything will kill you. And most of them are doing it for ratings and career boosting than honest advice.

If this was 100 years ago I think the average person lived to maybe 50. So with humans advancing in making things healthier, suddenly us two legged big brained armpit scratching humans live an extra 25-30 years.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Never liked drinking, always tasted like shit. Whiskey and Vodka are putrid and wine tastes like vomit.

The only alcoholic drink I like is stout beer and I drink maybe one at a restaurant a 2 times a year if at all.

Just dont see the point to it.

My dad was an alcoholic so I guess im conditioned to hating it anyway
 

Lasha

Member
Bacon proven to reduce life expectancy. All permutations of interest bearing finance have proven predatory. Now alcohol has been revealed to have no positive benefits. Maybe the Prophet was on to something. 🕋
 

Smiggs

Member
There are many ways to look at this.

Truth is, whatever your prerogative as an adult is, it doesn't govern what society should do. Meaning, of all the thousands of people getting killed by drunk drivers, the hundreds of thousands of extreme incidents happening when people drink from murders to beating their kids, to the significant number of addicts, to all the ills it does to the body, the effects are so big that an individuals prerogative means very little.

The main thing here is that you only enjoy beers and bourbon on the weekends because you have been played your entire life by commercials and because the people around you drink. You never really had a moment where you chose to drink, you start because others do it. Nobody drinks a beer and thinks it tastes great when you are a teenager or whenever you start, rather it gets indoctrinated through culture, and you force it to become something you enjoy as you grow up.

Beer taste like absolute horseshit, but you grew up on the horseshit and have drunk it so much, that now you think you want it. People taste this shit when they are young and fucking throw up but they keep forcing it down until they can drink it without retching. And now grown men think it's some sort of classy thing and comfortable thing to consume the horseshit that they used to puke into a ditch. Jesus christ, we live in such a fucking clown show society.
I'll do my best to dig through this self righteous, pretentious bullshit in a way you can understand.

First, society learned not that long ago that complete prohibition of alcohol leads to far, far worse outcomes for society at large than it ever would being legal and regulated. Are there issues with drunk drivers, domestic violence, alcohol dependency among many other things? Absolutely, and those are important topics that need to be addressed (and often are, but society at large), but most of them start with a simple concept: personal responsibility. You're treading down a slippery slope with restricting things for the "common good", something that history has shown by and large doesn't work in the long run.

Second, your "reasoning" for why I like to drink is beyond ridiculous. I started to drink years ago because I CHOSE to drink--no one made me then, and no one makes me now. I had/have plenty of friends that both drank and didn't, so it's not like I was forced to take on a habit for social acceptance or some other bullshit reasoning. As for why I continue to drink? It's because I enjoy it, and nothing further. And I often will go weeks at a time without drinking, because I don't HAVE to drink.

For your last five star hot take, I actually enjoyed the flavor of beer when I first tried it. But here's the crazy thing, I didn't like the taste of dill pickles, cilantro, vinegar, hot sauces, coffee, various vegetables, and tons of other foods when I first tried them, but now I cannot go without them as an adult. Guess what happened? I grew the fuck up and developed a palette unlike that of a damn prepubescent punk kid.
 
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Kilau

Member
“Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!”
 

Korranator

Member
It makes you wonder how much other bullshit is out there being funded by special interest groups that were being told about that is safe. We probably would be shocked to find out the truth about a lot of things.
You mean like:

Whole grains
Soy
Corn
Vegan
Plant based cooking oils
Laboratory created foods
 
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