"drinkers" news and stories

Here we go again - just as us wine lovers were feeling smug over the health benefits of imbibing moderate levels of vino, along comes a new study that debunks the idea.

Following an indepth look at a long series of studies, researchers in Canada and Australia have found a systematic error in the design of previous studies that may have exaggerated the health benefits of alcohol. These studies divided groups into "drinkers" and "abstainers" and among the abstainers were people who had reduced or quit drinking for medical reasons. Originally it seemed that the abstainers had higher death rates from heart disease than drinkers as they did not receive its protective benefit, but it now seems that "those in the abstainer category were often already frail and predisposed to death."

The study authors warn that their report does not deny the positives of light alcohol intake, defined as two drinks or fewer per day, but say much is still unclear.

[Cartoon By George - 10 great cartoons viewable from this link]

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A Danish study of millions of supermarket transactions revealed that beer purchasers were more likely to by unhealthy foods than wine purchasers. This offers some insights into why wine consumption is consistently linked to health benefits while the consumption of beer and spirits is not.

Instead of relying on self reporting consumption of food and alcohol, the grocery receipts revealed what people are actually purchasing and presumably consuming. With 3.5 million transactions in the survey, it does seem likely that most people are eating what they buy, so the odds that people coincidentally happen to be purchasing beer and junk foods without consuming them is low. Beer buyers purchased foods like cold cuts, chips, pork, butter, margarine, sausages and soft drinks, while wine buyers put olives, fruits, vegetables, poultry and vegetable oils into their shopping bags.

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