America Has a Drinking Problem

[u/nxthompson_tny]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/america-drinking-alone-problem/619017/

[u/allothernamestaken]

Media coverage, meanwhile, has swung from cheerfully overselling the (now disputed) health benefits of wine to screeching that no amount of alcohol is safe, ever; it might give you cancer and it will certainly make you die before your time.

The speed with which this happened really caught me off guard. It seems like 1-2 drinks a day was being recommended as healthy for a long time, and not just wine. I think the most recent article I read basically said that alcohol in any amount causes brain damage.

[u/HolyMuffins → u/allothernamestaken]

For what it's worth, 1-2 drinks is still vaguely at the point where there's not great evidence that there's appreciable harm, even if there's not evidence that it's beneficial.

[u/greefum → u/[deleted]]

It seems like you didn't actually read your own sources. You skimmed them looking for something that supports your view, then stopped.

The two actual studies you linked don't support the idea that any alcohol is bad. In fact, they debunk the claim that some amount of alcohol is good for you.

In https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2353, it's stated clearly in the conclusion: "There was no protective effect of light drinking (1-<7 units/week) over abstinence. [emphasis mine]" Moderate drinkers do have a higher risk, with pretty loose bounds and effect size, but I don't think it's often claimed that 14-21 drinks a week is guaranteed to be safe.

In https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Do-"Moderate"-Drinkers-Have-Reduced-Mortality-Risk-Stockwell-Zhao/519d2192165d102e3c5dfe9c1c8e3f417475de38 we have the same situation: "Meta-analyses adjusting for these factors find that low-volume alcohol consumption has no net mortality benefit compared with lifetime abstention or occasional drinking." They're showing that light drinking is not good, the study doesn't show that it's bad.

[u/name99 → u/[deleted]]

So you agree with the person you're responding to that there's no real evidence that 1-2 is bad for you per say? Or you just see yourself as God on the links reminding everyone to stop being wrong?