Is Alcohol Good For Your Health?
Maybe the researchers just had a little too much to drink.

by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

A recent issue of the University of California's Berkeley Wellness Letter reported on a new research about the so-called heart healthy "benefits" of alcohol consumption. Previous studies had led to a recommendation that moderate consumption of red wine-but not other alcoholic beverages-helped reduced the risk of heart attack. What did the research reveal? Were we to rely on the Berkeley Wellness Letter for this information, the latest news would be that moderate consumption of any alcoholic beverage-red or white wine, even beer and spirits- can be heart- healthy. Unfortunately, their latest news is still woefully out-of-date. More recent studies show that even moderate alcohol consumption is linked to significantly increased incidence of atrial fibrillation, a condition that can lead to stroke, and to higher rates of breast cancer. Alcohol is not actually heart-healthy. It simply has anti-clotting effects, much like aspirin. Researchers have found that even moderate consumption of alcohol-including wine-interferes with blood clotting and, thereby, reduces heart attacks in high-risk populations people who eat the typical, disease-promoting American diet. Moderate drinking is defined as a maximum of one drink per day for a women and two drinks for men. Consuming more than this is associated with increased fat around the waist and other potential problems. For example, alcohol consumption leads to mild withdrawal sensations the next day that are commonly mistaken for hunger, which leads people to eat more than is genuinely necessary, resulting in weight gain. It is worth noting that alcohol's anti-clotting properties have only been shown to grant some protective effect against heart attacks for people eating unhealthfully. There are no studies showing that this protective effect is valuable in low-risk individuals consuming healthful, plant-based diets with resultant low cholesterol levels. In my view, it is much wiser to avoid the detrimental effects of alcohol completely and protect yourself from heart disease with nutritional excellence.