Sometimes, we fail to scrutinise the beliefs that we strongly desire to be accurate, particularly when the subject relates to our consumption of alcohol. This notion aptly applies to myself; over the past several decades, my unwavering conviction that alcohol contributes positively to life expectancy has supported my routine intake of moderate quantities. It’s irrelevant that my perspective has been significantly influenced by vaguely understood concepts about antioxidants and polyphenols, or that my past experiences serving attractive patrons with wine during civilized lunchtime meals in Paris, while a student, have affected my views. It’s also inconsequential that my understanding of antioxidants and polyphenols is underdeveloped and that French citizens do not usually consume substantial amounts of wine during lunch.
It is indeed troubling that my interpretation of the health effects of alcohol depends significantly on optimistic assumptions. However, it is even more alarming that the research community – those responsible for developing an entire century’s worth of literature on the topic – exhibit a similar mentality. Prominent biologist Raymond Pearl with his effervescent personality, strong dislike for monotony, and appreciation of life’s joys, was one of the key figures that propagated the idea alcohol consumption in moderation was at worst benign. This attitude could explain the fundamental conclusion of his 1926 publication “Alcohol and Longevity” – which, according to an expert from that period, suggests that alcohol is an environmental aspect that human bodies can manage rather well, and functions as a nutritional element that could substitute other digestible food sources to some extent.
This declaration insinuates that alcohol is harmless enough to count as a calorie alternative for other foods, reminding me of the nutritional analysis which suggests prawn-flavoured crisps as a solid source of Omega-3. Nonetheless, it becomes tough to debate against this premise when you’re conscientiously drinking merlot fortified by solid statistical data.
During the 1990s, numerous studies appeared to elucidate the supposed heart-health advantages of consuming red wine. Coincidentally, this was the era when wine drinking took a fashionable turn, particularly among women. As I reached legal drinking age, wine had been marketed to us as a suitable companion to holidays, informal brunches, book club meetings, and even mundane tasks such as bathing a toddler. We readily indulged in it, until our mid-life years, when seemingly minor quantities of wine started to disagree with us. A night of leisurely sipping chilled albariño often resulted in morning-after ailments and remorse, an intense experience, typically only seen in an emergency ward of a small-sized hospital. For the record, when I say “we”, I’m actually referring to my personal experience.
It now appears, however, that Pearl and subsequent investigators may have neglected some pertinent details. They did not consider that moderate drinkers generally exhibited better overall health compared to completely sober individuals – they had higher incomes, exercised frequently, and even boasted better dental health. Notably, Tim Stockwell, a Canadian researcher and co-author of a comprehensive analysis on the effects of alcohol in 2023, revealed that previous reports did not account for individuals who quit drinking due to health issues—known as “sick quitters”—or abstainers who were former heavy drinkers. Besides, these studies disproportionately included a demographic representative of most clinical trials: older Caucasian males.
In a further interesting development, it is now commonly agreed on that even moderate drinking can curtail one’s lifespan, although marginally if alone. Stockwell’s broad study of over 4.8 million people and 107 different studies indicated that women who consumed 25g or more of alcohol per day, equivalent to about two 125ml glasses of 14 per cent wine, and men who drank 45g or more per day faced “a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality”. Earlier in 2018, a study published in the Lancet advocated that the only safe alcohol consumption level is zero. A report in the Nature magazine also associated average daily alcohol intake of just one to two units to potential negative effects on brain structure.
In this era where optimising oneself has become an international contest, various studies have led to the emergence of a whole new form of abstinence movement. According to the World Health Organisation, no intake level of alcohol has been found to be devoid of risks. Andrew Huberman, a renowned wellness influencer and podcaster, noted that even infrequent drinking – as low as once a week – can bring about noticeable alterations in our neural circuitry. The trend of #sobercurious on Instagram has now eclipsed #cleaneating, becoming the latest irritatingly self-righteous wellness craze.
Yet, there exists a surprise element. A common agreement is seen trending that even though minimal drinking does curtail lifespan, it does so only marginally when viewed independently. The terms “negligible” and “progressive” are often conspicuously absent from a plethora of studies examining the risks associated with moderate alcohol consumption. David Spiegelhalter, a celebrated statistician from Cambridge, unravelled the risk in a virtual breakdown of the 2018 study published in The Lancet. If over the period of one year, 1,600 individuals imbibe 20g of alcohol daily – which is approximately equivalent to 32 bottles of gin – only a single additional person would encounter a health issue, in contrast to 1,600 teetotallers (meaning the health issues would arise in 16 members of the drinking group compared to 15 among the non-drinkers).
Tim Stockwell shed light on his studies from a different perspective to the New York Times: consuming two drinks weekly leads an average of a week less in one’s life, while seven drinks cause about two and a half months of life reduction.
On a collective level, even a slight increase in the risk of moderate consumption can equate to a significant decrease in the total lifespan. Individually, this risk might be tolerable depending upon various factors, including other risk elements, your ability to limit yourself to just two drinks, as well as factors such as the addictive quality of alcohol. Whether you can bear the aftereffects of the “albariñover” though, is indeed a different question altogether.