Alcohol isn't all bad.
In fact, alcohol is pretty good -- in the right amounts, in the right times and places, in the right people.
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| Alcohol with friends |
I have not drunk alcohol for 35 years. I am happier for having stopped drinking. It was easier to not drink than drink a healthy amount.
And there are lots of problem drinkers.They hurt themselves and others. They drink and drive. They drink and get into fights. They drink and get sloshy drunk and ruin family gatherings. Alcohol is very prone to abuse. I have no illusions about that.
For several decades red wine had positive word of mouth based on apparently-flawed science that indicated that red wine was good for heart health. Red wine has compounds called polyphenols and resveratrol, which supposedly raise "good cholesterol." There was observed anecdotal evidence that the French drank more wine than did Americans, but they lived longer and had better cardiovascular health. "To your health" was a good reason to have a glass of wine.
Newer medical information is that alcohol in any amount is net-unhealthy. People are drinking less and it coincides with people having decided that wine is not a health-food
People are still drinking wine, and in the same percentages, but doing so in an atmosphere of people generally drinking less, and Trump's tariff wars have destroyed the U.S. export market for alcohol, especially wines.
So what is good about alcohol? Why would I praise something that I know to be dangerous and addictive? Alcohol lifts spirits. Alcohol increases sociability. There is a social isolation problem in America. Covid sent people indoors and into their screens. Young people are less likely to get together in bars or living rooms and talk. Alcohol is addictive, but so are phone screens. Alcohol is an antidote to screens.
I do just fine at a dinner with friends without alcohol, but alcohol with dinner makes a three-hour dinner of talk more likely, and I am happy if other people around me are drinking. Notice that no wine glasses are on the table. The family members are looking at each other, not grandmother's turkey, but everyone seems happy.
But these images in advertisements are not wrong. Alcohol is the social lubricant that makes this image of interracial mixed-gender groups plausible.
I don't think this is an image of a heart-healthy dinner:
The problem is the huge piece of red meat, not the wine.
4 comments:
I used to have one- two glasses of red wine after golf, but now I don’t. I haven’t quit drinking, but barely do drink anymore. I think of it as empty calories and my digestion doesn’t like it when I drink very much. As a 73 year old man I am much more aware of eating in a healthy manner. I don’t always do it, but now I pay attention. Limiting alcohol is just one part of trying to stay alive for me.
I stand with Representative Sweat, of Mississippi, in his 1952 "Whiskey Speech":
My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.
If when you say "whiskey" you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation and despair and shame and helplessness and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
But if when you say "whiskey" you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm, to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
The reason most people are willing to pay more for fermented grape juice than plain is that the alcohol alters our consciousness, and not always in a good way, but to do that we need to drink more than is healthy. In fact, the current wisdom is that no amount is healthy. Personally, I found that as I age it doesn’t help my balance. Quitting was easy.
By the way, drunk driving kills about four times as many people every year as terrorists killed on 9/11.
I drink a six pack every year. That's about it. Every couple of months I just get in a mood to have a beer. A lite one. And just one. I have nothing against it, I just don't like losing a bit of control of my brain. I would never get into my car even with just one in me. I have a cousin who can't drink his coffee without a shot of Baily's. Just for the taste, he says. Well, maybe. My father drank a lot. Scotch on the rocks. Sometimes without the rocks. I noticed his personality changed when he was drinking. Not for the better. He used a water bottle filled with wine in his nursing home. Right to the end. He was 89.
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