Alcohol and Diet Health
Latest Alcohol Guidelines For Optimum
Dietary Health
The latest Dietary Guidelines For Americans
recommends that those who choose to drink alcohol beverages should do
so in moderation. In the Guidelines, moderation is defined as up to one
drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. Examples
of "one alcoholic drink" include: (1) 12 fluid ounces of regular
beer; or (2) 5 fluid ounces of wine; or (3) 1.5 fluid ounces of 80-proof
distilled spirits. This refers to permissable alcohol-intake during the
course of a day. It is not intended as a daily alcohol allowance which
may be safely accumulated during the week and then drunk at the weekend!
Moderate Consumption of Alcohol Benefits
Health
When consumed in moderation, alcohol does
seem to offer several health benefits. But heavy drinking is closely associated
with much higher risk of serious disease. In simple terms, the healthiest
individuals enjoy 1-2 drinks per day, while heavy drinkers are among the
least healthy populuation group. In particular, moderate alcohol consumption
appears to reduce the risk of heart disease, either by reducing the stickiness
of blood platelets (that usually adhere to each other, thus forming a
blood clot - the precursor to a heart attack), or by relaxing and enlarging
blood vessels, or by increasing the amount of HDL (good) cholesterol in
the blood.
Health Studies Into Benefits of Alcohol
in Diet
- According to the American Cancer Society's
Cancer Prevention Study, which tracked one million Americans for 12
years, concluded that moderate alcohol intake had a protective effect
on the development of coronary heart disease in men. Those who drank
alcoholic beverages had a 21 percent lower risk of heart attack than
men who never drink.
- Similar research data into diet and
alcohol intake for 600,000 women also showed that one drink a day reduced
the risk of heart attack for a woman.
- A Tulane University study of other diet
and alcohol studies revealed that men who had two drinks a day were
30 percent less likely than non-drinkers to have a clot-related stroke.
However, having 5 alcoholic drinks a day increases the health risk by
70 percent.
- A University of Copenhagen study into
alcohol intake in daily diet revealed that moderate wine drinking reduces
the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, compared to that of non-drinkers.
In contrast, beer drinkers had a higher risk of mental disorders in
old age.
Excessive Alcohol is Bad For Weight Control
and Nutrition
When trying to lose weight, or maintain
a healthy weight, an excessive alcohol intake makes it harder to ingest
adequate nutrition while remaining within your calorie allowance. Meaning:
drinking alcohol when following a weight loss diet is bad, either because
you eat too many calories and gain weight, or because the non-nutritional
calories in alcohol are likely to cause you to go without essential minerals
and vitamins.
Excessive Alcohol is Bad For General Health
Although both beneficial and adverse health
effects of alcohol consumption vary according to the amount consumed and
the individual characteristics and circumstances of the drinker, the health
consequences of heavy alcohol consumption are well documented. They include:
increased risk of liver cirrhosis, high blood pressure, stroke, heart
disease, as well as cancers of the throat, stomach and rectum.
Studies Into Adverse Health Effects of
Alcohol in Diet
Recent studies into alcohol consumption
and health include the following:
- Research by the American Cancer Society
reveals that older women who consume more than 3 alcoholic beverages
a week may increase their risk of breast cancer.
- Cancer studies show that men or women
who have 2 drinks a day have a higher incidence of mouth and throat
cancers.
- A University of Oklahoma study shows
that men who drink 5+ beers a day double their risk of rectal cancer.
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