Moderate Drinkers Are Slimmer

[Neil D]

Scientists find that people who consume a little alcohol often are significantly less likely to be obese than nondrinkers.

December 5, 2005

For those worried about that holiday bulge, some good tidings: A study Monday finds people who drink small amounts of alcohol regularly are less likely to be obese than teetotalers.

However, the study, which appears in the open access journal BMC Public Health, also reports that those who drink excessively are significantly fatter. The study was conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and Texas Tech University.

It’s not the first time scientists have related consuming between one and five alcoholic drinks a week to indicators of good health. Previous research has linked moderate drinking to a beneficial effect on diabetes and other chronic diseases.

But data in this area is often conflicting. In November, the journal Neurology reported that regular wine drinkers are more than twice less likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

However, a study in the British Medical Journal in early September linked frequent drinking with cognitive decline in old age.

Start Drinking, or Not

Because of these discrepancies, the researchers say that more work in the area is needed.

“The data give no evidence to advise nondrinkers to start drinking alcohol just for reducing body weight,” they wrote. “However, the evidence reported here argues against a strategy of promoting complete abstention at least among those who regularly consume alcohol.”

The physiological mechanism linking alcohol and body mass is not fully understood. In theory it reduces the oxidation of fat and favors fat storage, which should result in weight gain.

In this study, the researchers compared body mass index (BMI) data from 8,236 non-smokers who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

They found that people who report drinking one or two drinks per day had just less than half the odds of obesity compared to nondrinkers. However, people who report drinking at least four alcoholic drinks were 46 percent more likely to be obese than the nondrinkers were.

Alcohol is big business in the United States. Half of all Americans over the age of 11 years old consumed at least one alcoholic beverage in the last month.

On average, alcohol contributes around 10 percent of the total daily energy intake of an American adult.

[cricket]

I have a feeling that the effects are due to an all-things-in-moderation lifestyle.

[Dr. Shane]

No mention of cancer in the study. I have read a number of articles that linked moderate drinking to increase risk of cancer.

Best way to lose weight and improve one's heart is excercize and low-fat diet. Neither one has a negetive side effect.

[Paul Beach]

So are heroin addicts.

[Suzanne Sutton]

[:"blue"]Interesting...Not only are heroin addicts slimmer, this goes for most drug addicts. Shane is also correct; there are safer ways to lose weight and stay slim.

And here is a little note from France:

Report Urges Health Warning on Wine Labels

FRANCE--A new study calls for wine bottles to carry public health warnings to combat alcohol abuse.

The report, drawn up for the Health Ministry, says alcoholism affects one in 10 people in France and that wine bottles should carry labels similar to those on cigarette packs. It also calls on the government to provide better information to young people about the risks of alcohol.

Suzanne [/]

[Gerr]

So, fat people should drink?

Gerry

[Bravus]

Not even gonna get into this one again (much), except to say that science seems to be supporting (what I have claimed is) the Biblical prescription of moderation rather than the SDA church's prescription of abstinence. There are all sorts of excellent reasons for abstinence, but health as a whole seems not to be one of them.

[Neil D]

Quote:

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Gerry Cabalo said:

So, fat people should drink?

Gerry

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Sorry, Gerry, but you aint gonna to claim that I said that...

No, what I find interesting, is that moderation in wine drinking is what the world says to do. Contrast that with what Adventists have said, about abstinance in all forms of alcohol, and the question in inevitably comes up as to one of 2 questions....

Is it a sin to drink alcohol?

Is it ok to drink alcohol?

Depending upon your understanding of the bible, moderation in drinking **is the least safest choice** a person can make. However, in the question of moderation, what is moderate drinking? The true variable is the person himself...He may have a tendancy to over drink [quite a number of people have this problem], or a tendancy to abuse alcohol [and a number of people have this problem as well], and there are those who exercise poor judgment when drinking along with other activities [ie driving] which tend to cause other problems [motor vehicle accidents, ect]. All of these problems are very real and active problems in our society. My suggestion.....dont get started at all.

But for those who do drink responsibly and very moderately, don't condemn them either....

[Dr. Shane]

There are those who exercise poor judgment when drinking along with other activities [ie sex] which tend to cause other problems [unwed pregnancies].

Number one cause of unwed pregnancies is alcohol or other drug use. Few public schools teach that in sex education which is another reason to send our kids to Adventist schools.

I do not see that the Bible condemns alcohol consumption but it does condemn alcohol intoxification. So if one's definition of moderation is getting drunk once or twice a year than that would be sin. If the definition of moderation is having a drink of wine once in a while without it ever leading to intoxification, that would not be sin. However given the danger that alcohol presents, one is best to follow the advice of King Solomon and not even look at the wine when it is red (fermented).

Given the teaching of the Investigative Judgement and that we are living in the typical Day of Atonement, the Adventist church is right to teach complete abstainance from alcohol.

[Gerr]

Even "moderate" amounts of alcohol can lower one's inhibitions, i.e. weaken the will, destroy brain & liver cells, and impair driving performance. Since we are living on the enemy's enchanted ground, I for one, have to be alert, keep my mind clear to discern right from wrong, truth from error. And with all the maniacs on the road.....

Gerry

[Suzanne Sutton]

[:"blue"]Rethinking Moderate Drinking

ATLANTA - The government warned in March 2005 that a few drinks a day might not protect against strokes and heart attacks after all. Various studies in recent years have touted the health benefits of moderate drinking. Some have even said that as many as 4 drinks a day can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease in people 40 and over.

However researchers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from 250,000 Americans who participated in a 2003 telephone survey. They found that the nondrinkers had many more risks for heart disease--such as being overweight and inactive, or having high blood pressure or diabetes--than the moderate drinkers. Based on those results, the agency could not say that moderate drinking was a factor in reducing the risk of heart disease.

The findings are published in the May 2005 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"We're feeling the pendulum has swung way too far and Americans are getting sort of the wrong idea" on alcohol, said the study's lead author, Dr. Tim Naimi of the CDC's chronic diseases division. "The science around moderate drinking is very murky."

Indeed, moderate drinkers tended to be in better health, better educated, wealthier and more active than their nondrinking counterparts, and that might have contributed to their lower risk of heart disease, the study said. "It appears that moderate drinkers have many social and lifestyle characteristics that favor their survival over the nondrinkers and few of these differences are likely due to alcohol consumption itself," the study said.

The CDC has long worried about alcohol abuse in the United States. Studies have shown that drinking excessively--5 or more drinks daily--can increase the risk of heart disease. The CDC says nearly 1 in 3 Americans drinks too much- --The Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2005

Comment: It appears that alcohol is getting the credit for preventing heart disease when other lifestyle factors--adequate exercise, stress reduction a correct diet, etc.--are the true preventive measures. This is a vital point when one in 3 Americans are drinking too much and reaping the many negative results of this phenomenon. Who knows how many will start drinking "moderately" to gain the so-called health benefits and eventually cross the line into problem drinking and alcoholism? There are other, safer ways to prevent heart disease and strokes, etc., and to stay slim.

Suzanne [/]

[Suzanne Sutton]

[:"blue"]Moderation????

The National Research Council on Diet and Health: "Excessive alcohol increases risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, liver disease, cancer, neurological disorders and nutritional deficiencies. Moderate drinking carries risk of impaired neuromotor coordination and judgment.Small amounts can lead to dependence."

Book: Healthy Christians, by Sandi Mitchell: "For many it is hard to tell when "moderation" stops and too much begins. Many find out the hard way that when they try to drown their problems in alcohol, all they do is give them swimming lessons. Their problems come back stronger than ever!"

Ellen White, 3 Selected Messages, p. 287: "Tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol we must present as sinful indulgences...are not to be taken moderately, but discarded."

Suzanne [/]

[Bravus]

Mmmhmmm - sola scriptura, anyone?

[Norman Byers, N.D.]

Hi Bravus

Quote:

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Mmmhmmm - sola scriptura, anyone?

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Likewise, show from the Bible, where drinking is encouraged as a good thing. Not for stomach problems we have medicine, not for the perishing we have medicine and not for the depressed we have medicine. Not Deut 14:26 because in Deut 29: 6 it says they never had wine or strong drink. We can't use the example of Noah or any others who got drunk, They are not the standard but example of what can go wrong when people drink alcohol. There is no place in the Bible where drinking alcohol is encouraged (even in moderation) and if it is not there, wouldn't it stand to reason that it's not good. We don't need a direct text to tell us that drinking alcohol is not good, we need to direct people to Christ and to drink of Him. Dan 12:3 "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

Pro 20:1 "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise ."

Discernment, produced by exercising good judgment leads to a good understanding of these things.

Norman

[Bravus]

But you're missing the point. The point is that the Bible also does not forbid, or even discourage, the moderate use of alcohol. I'm not making the case that it's a good thing, nor that the Bible actively encourages it. I'm very narrowly and in a focused way making the case that the Bible does not command, require or teach total abstinence. For that reason, if we claim to be 'sola scriptura', yet hold abstinence as doctrinal, we lie.

We can definitely hold abstinence as healthful (despite the fact that the kind of evidence that started this thread, and heaps more, seems to suggest that there are health benefits to moderate use), or as a hedge against abuse, or for all sorts of other good reasons. But making it a point of doctrine on no Biblical support is what I'm arguing against.

[Dr. Shane]

In the United States the Food & Drug Administration has forbid alcohol companies from advertising that moderate use of alcohol is good for your health because while it decreases ones chances of heart disease, it significantly increases ones chances of cancer. So the message should be, drink moderately if you prefer to die from cancer rather than heart disease.

Fermented wine in Biblical days had substancially less alcohol than wine or even beer does today. One could easily drink that wine without becoming intoxificated. It is likely that the wine Jesus created from water was 100% pure grape juice. Without refrigeration grape juice would not stay fresh for very long. Thus fresh grape juice would merit the governor's response, "thou hast kept the good wine until now".

Temperance is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23). A comprehensive Bible study will reveal that the Bible discourages alcohol consumption. Drunkeness is forbidden. Argueing that the Bible doesn't forbid alcohol consumption is like argueing that it doesn't forbid bigamy - both are permitted but discouraged.

As Adventists, preparing the world for the soon return of Christ, we should abstain completely from any form of alcohol that is not a medicine. We are to be His peculiar people. We are living in the typical Day of Atonement. We are to be afflicting our souls during the investigative judgement. This is no time to play Russian rollete with John Barlycorn.