To Your Health: Drinking in Moderation Has Its Benefits
In 2018, a Stanford research team claimed to have found the world’s oldest brewery with residue of 13,000-year-old beer in a prehistoric cave near Haifa, Israel. That is the oldest record of manmade alcohol in the world. According to Guinness World Records, the earliest firm evidence of wine production dates back to 6000 BC in Georgia (the country, not the state). The ability to metabolize alcohol most likely predates humanity to primates eating fermented fruit. Some have hypothesized that alcohol predates agriculture and that it was the desire for alcoholic beverages that led to agriculture and thus civilization. People blame a lot of things on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol, but I had never heard one of those things being the birth of civilization. Alcohol has been used in religious ceremonies, for medicinal use, and in celebration.
Now here we are! Another Memorial Day weekend. Another Fourth of July. The commencement of another wonderful summer season in Stone Harbor. The beginning of endless backyard barbecues, sunsets by the bay, and never the lack of a reason to celebrate. What do all of these things have in common? You guessed it – alcohol! For most, it’s not a celebration without a beverage to go along with it. In classical Greece, it was imbibed for breakfast. During Prohibition, you could get prescriptions for whiskey.
Through the centuries, many have touted the positive health effects of alcohol – but are they true? Does it actually have any nutritional value? And more importantly, what will it do to my fitness? With all the partying going on, are there actually healthy options when it comes to adult beverages? Maybe some are healthier than others, but (spoiler alert) not really. Can it be included in a healthy diet? Sure, and there may be some intangible benefits. We do live in a “resort town,” so it is no surprise that when people are here, they like to party and there is no shortage of accommodation. It is not uncommon for some of my clients to smell a little like a brewery on Monday morning when they are sweating out whatever they did over the weekend. While not optimal for health, people are going to keep enjoying their favorite drinks regardless.
The health risks of alcohol consumption have been widely documented. Alcohol is a toxin. Alcohol consumption, even just one night of drinking, will negatively affect the brain. The corpus callosum area of the brain specifically will be significantly smaller after just one night out. An Oxford Study examining the relationship between self-reported alcohol intake and brain scans of 25,000 U.K. residents showed a direct relationship. The more they drank, the less volume of their gray matter. Drinking too much at one time or over a long duration can also damage the heart, leading to stroke, arrhythmias, etc. Drinking can take a large toll on the liver and pancreas. Even one drink per day can result in increased risk for some cancers. It’s not sounding good.
Alcohol has no nutritional value and actually inhibits the absorption of B vitamins, folic acid, and zinc. Alcohol is empty calories that causes dehydration, slows your body’s ability to heal, prevents muscle recovery, and depletes the immune system. A little wine may help reduce blood pressure, but you are far better off focusing on other lifestyle factors than adding alcohol for medicinal reasons.
So, from a purely nutritional standpoint there aren’t really benefits to drinking alcohol. Not to mention, 24 people die every year after being hit with a champagne cork. (I’m not sure I believe that stat, but if it’s on the internet it has to be true, right?) The negatives greatly outweigh the positives in my estimation. Does that mean I will never drink again? It does not.
A large component of many celebrations across the globe is alcohol. After all, what’s a Memorial Day weekend without a visit to The Princeton? What’s a Fourth of July burger on the grill without a six-pack from Fred’s? It has been proved many times that social interaction is good for your brain. A large range of positive psychological outcomes have been associated with moderate drinking. Enhanced sociability and social interaction lead to elevated mood, reduced stress, and reduced depression. The elderly have higher levels of involvement and activity in association with moderate drinking. “Individuals with a positive, health-seeking orientation to life use alcohol within a larger framework of self-regulation and pleasure,” according to a 1995 study cited in “Alcohol and Pleasure: A Health Perspective.”
Healthful drinking is thus a part of an orientation that includes a range of productive and healthful behaviors that in combination generate positive sensations, health outcomes, and additional reinforcement including social support and cohesion. Alcohol might not be that healthy in itself, but there are many benefits from the rituals that may go along with it and the promotion of social interaction.
A study by the University of Texas psychology department in 2010 found “abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45 precent, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers 41 percent.” Keeping it in moderation is important. If you want a glass of wine, the stress that comes from worrying about the impending health implications may be worse than actually just drinking the glass of wine. So, go watch the sunset at Lazy Bass. Enjoy a glass of wine with some friends. If alcohol did bring about the rise of civilization, I think we owe it to our ancestors to keep up the tradition. Everything in moderation.
Just be careful uncorking that champagne.
