Why a glass of wine with dinner IS healthy: Moderate drinkers are less likely to get ill and enjoy life more
Enjoying glass of wine with your meal could be key to a happy, healthy life
Study finds those who have a third of a bottle a day suffer fewer illnesses
They have a more positive outlook on life and are less likely to binge drink
Finnish researchers studied alcohol consumption habits of 2,600 people
Source: Daily Mail
29 April 2016
With the Government cracking down on moderate drinking, official guidelines now recommend no more than six glasses of wine a week.
But the Mediterranean habit of enjoying a glass of wine or two with your evening meal could be the key to a happy, healthy life, new research has shown.
The Government launched controversial updated alcohol guidelines in January, slashing the maximum recommended weekly intake for men from 21 units to 14 – the same as for women.
This is the equivalent of just under six standard glasses of wine. The new advice also suggested having ‘several alcohol-free days a week’.
However a study has now found that those who have up to a third of a bottle of wine – or two small glasses – with food every day suffer fewer illnesses and have a more positive outlook on life.
They are less likely to binge drink and ‘should not be considered a risk’, according to researchers from the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere in Finland.
The team of scientists studied the alcohol consumption habits of nearly 2,600 people aged between 18 and 69. Questionnaires saw them rate their self-esteem and health, both physical and mental.
The study discovered the 12 per cent who regularly have wine with their meal scored significantly higher on all three counts – even when other social factors such as occupation, education and marital status were taken into consideration.
It was found that both the timing of the drinking and the type of alcohol consumed were important. Those who drank wine away from the dinner table didn’t enjoy the same rewards in their health and well-being. And hazardous habits could be predicted according to what and when people drank.
A quarter of those who mixed wine and beer at meal times were bingers, while among people who had wine only and always with food, the proportion was just 8 per cent.
The study – published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism – states: ‘This further confirms that those drinking only wine during meals should not be considered as a risk group on the population level.’
Public health policy consultant John Duffy – a former Government adviser and alcohol statistics expert – said: ‘This study is another piece in the jigsaw showing that moderate alcohol consumption is not a health risk for most people, but may in fact produce health benefits.
‘Year after year, reputable, peer-reviewed studies produce similar findings, and yet the Government and the anti-alcohol lobby persist with the fiction that every drop of every drink is bad for you.’
Daily Mail wine columnist Matthew Jukes said: ‘Official advice on drinking frustrates me enormously because it’s codswallop.
‘It’s no surprise that the people in this study who drank wine with their food were happier and healthier. The best advice is to drink wine “little and often” whereas the Government tells you it should just be “little”.’
The Goverment has insisted that moderate drinking only has slight beneficial effects for women over the age of 55 despite a catalogue of studies suggesting that it is healthier for adults than abstinence.
And yesterday the Department of Health claimed that, while drinking over a meal will help mitigate the risk, regular consumption of wine ‘has an impact on your health’.
A spokesman said: ‘The recently updated UK guidelines were based on an expert review.’