@Terminalxylem - has there been any studies about when you drink over the duration of your life? Meaning, I drank very little in my 20’s and progressively more each decade. I’m anticipating being about the same or cutting back some in my 50’s (which starts in May). I’m just wondering if you drink the same amount over those years but the amount is more earlier or later on that it makes a difference. Just wondering if a younger system can handle it better or regenerate over time.
I'd add an additional layer to this based on a discussion I head with a doctor awhile back (over drinks, not coincidentally). He posited that it is very, very bad to consume two (2) drinks per day on a daily basis over time and will likely take literal years off one's life. He distinguished this behavior from one drink per day (he claimed that, for our liver/system, there is a massive difference between one drink and a second drink) and a binge drinking session say, once per week. Obviously never drinking is the most healthy option, but he claimed that the multiple per day even if to not get drunk was significantly worse longevity health-wise than binge drinking or the one per day (which my nearly 100 year old grandmother has done since her teens).
Do any studies back up the above?
All that said, the World Health Organization official statement on alcohol intake is as follows: “No level is safe.”
Just read something interesting about this.
Keep in mind the source of this. There's interest in "no level safe" being disproven. Doesn't make the statements about the people contributing to that policy wrong, though.
The Groups Advising the WHO
In 2018, the WHO launched the SAFER initiative5, a series of policy suggestions to reduce alcohol-related harms. As the WHO said openly at the time, SAFER had been created "in collaboration with international partners."
A couple of these partners were non-controversial. They included the U.N. and Vital Strategies6, a New York not-for-profit agency known for its effective anti-tobacco work.
But some of the other named partners included I.O.G.T. (later Movendi International) the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, and the NCD [Non-Communicable Diseases] Alliance.
These are all anti-alcohol groups-and their names began popping up in WHO documents with regularity.
Take the WHO's "Reporting about alcohol: guide for journalists7," published in April 2023 (see sidebar). The advisers behind the guide include some communications professionals-but others are affiliated with Movendi International8, the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance9, the NCD Alliance10, and Eurocare11.
The most significant of these anti-alcohol groups is Movendi International, headquartered in Stockholm.
Temperance Groups Turned Policymakers
Movendi International describes itself as "the largest independent global movement for development through alcohol prevention."
Founded in upstate New York in 1851, it began as a temperance group that was heavily influenced by the Freemasons-complete with regalia and rituals. Originally called the Independent Order of Good Templars (I.O.G.T.), it spread rapidly across the U.S., Canada, and England. By 1900 there were groups in places as far-flung as Sri Lanka, Burma, Nigeria, and Panama. Everywhere the I.O.G.T. went, it inspired the founding of other temperance groups.
The efforts of such groups culminated, of course, during Prohibition, yet the unpopularity of Prohibition caused membership to fall, while the rise of Alcoholics Anonymous made such groups less relevant. After World War II, the I.O.G.T. turned to southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
It dispensed with the regalia in the 1970s and rebranded as Movendi International in 2020. Movendi is a portmanteau of 'modus vivendi,' meaning 'way of living;' it presents itself as a human rights, "heart-led" organization and says it is not against alcohol12. Instead, "...we advocate for every person's right to choose to live free from alcohol." Yet anyone who joins must agree13 that "I lead a lifestyle free from the use of alcohol and other drugs."
Movendi's worldview is simple: There are no artisans, small producers, or vignerons connected to land and history. There is only 'Big Alcohol,' which uses propaganda words like "moderation" and "craft" to conceal its true nature.
And Big Alcohol is an ally of Big Tobacco14—Movendi links alcohol to tobacco whenever it can.
But while Movendi and other groups are busy mischaracterizing the alcohol industry as one united group, they go out of their way to hide their own origins.
Take Movendi's Swedish branch, the IOGT-NTO15, which presents itself as an anti-poverty organization-solving poverty by solving alcohol. It was formed in 1970 after the Swedish branch of I.O.G.T. merged with a Christian temperance group.
Ironically, the Swedish branch is partly funded by a lottery16; in 2018 they were taken to court17 and threatened with a fine of 3 million kroner (about $260,000) if they didn't stop using deceptive practices. Specialists have long recognized that gambling is an addiction, making this a curious choice of funding for a temperance movement.
Really interesting stuff imo.
Who are the people behind the new anti-alcohol messaging from the World Health Organization?
www.winebusiness.com
Hazy IPAs, negronis, martinis, a cabernet with a steak, etc...that's heaven for me.
