Wine Spectator: U.S. Scientific Panel Reaffirms Health Benefits Of Moderate Drinking

Perhaps a daily glass of wine has been unfairly targeted. The panel of health experts tasked with studying alcohol consumption for the U.S. Dietary Guidelines has found with “moderate certainty” that people who drink alcohol in moderation have lower all-cause mortality than those who don’t drink.

The report provides a strong argument that the current guidelines, which recommend men drink no more than two glasses of alcohol per day and women drink no more than one, should remain in place, despite a growing chorus by anti-alcohol activists that no level of drinking is safe.

What remains to be seen is whether a second review, conducted by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) and staffed by a group of researchers with ties to anti-alcohol advocacy groups, will come to different conclusions.

The panel notes in their introduction that research on alcohol and health is complex because studies are limited to looking at correlation rather than causation and that researchers often have to reply on people self-reporting how much they drink. The panel authors are careful to make clear how certain they are of each of their findings.

That said, their findings offer support to the theory that moderate consumption, which they define as no more than two drinks per day for men and one for women, offers health benefits. In a normal cycle, the panel’s report would be reviewed by the officials at HHS and the USDA who craft the final guidelines. The panel’s recommendations are not always adopted, but they carry a lot of weight.

But this year there is a second panel exploring alcohol and health, and rather than review existing scientific research, it is conducting its own. Wine Spectator has the full story.

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