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Receive our newsletterGenerally speaking, it appears that most people are accustomed to drinking alcohol and it seems to be a totally acceptable social past-time. In fact, alcohol is a product that has provided us with a myriad of functions throughout history dating back longer than all human memory and has played its part in religion and worship, as food enhancers, and of course for medicinal purposes as early as 2,000 B.C. In ancient Egypt, alcohol was seen as a very important source of nutrients and calories, with some alcoholic beverages containing high levels of protein, fat and carbohydrate. Stone Age beer jugs were discovered some time ago, so the consumption of alcohol has always been evident. Alcohol can be a social thirst quencher, a relaxant, a complement with dinner, and above all provides great pleasure to most people who drink it – especially at the time, but maybe not always the morning after!
However, almost weekly we are bombarded by news articles relating to the horrifying challenges caused through drinking alcohol and the flip side of that coin, the articles discussing the amazing miracle virtues of alcohol. The negative stories will often relate to the unfortunate binge drinking behaviour of young people, and are always accompanied by some very unforgiving photographs of these young people with their heads in the gutter, or their legs in the air having fallen over drunk. The most current report telling us that throughout England, every minute of the day a drunken person is admitted to casualty due to the binge drinking epidemic which correlates with the round-the-clock drinking hours designed to encourage a continental style café culture.
The more positive reports on drinking alcohol usually relate to wine (especially red wine) which is seen to be rich in vitamins and minerals and potassium, the latter being beneficial for heart health and the former a preventative for some cancers. Beer has been examined relating to bone density and a study carried out at Tufts University in Boston, on 2,000 men and women over the age of 60 found that men who consumed 1 – 2 bottles of beer a day had higher bone density than non-drinkers. Apparently, this may be down to the silicon contained in the beer.
But what is the real story here? Is alcohol good for us or not? Without doubt the negative stories are not just tabloid fodder. The current Department of Health (DoH) data showed an increase by 33% of patients admitted to casualty departments in England from 337,549 in 2005 to 448,813 in 2008. This equates to 1,230 admitted each day, so almost one a minute. These figures are set to rise, and the new Drinking Banning Order (BDO’s) or ‘booze ASBOs’ as they are known, are anticipated to help correct the situation. Personally, I don’t think the booze ASBOs will make much difference for as long as supermarkets sell their own brand alcohol for as little as 23p per can. Some of the bigger well known supermarkets have two-for-one deals on known brands and currently alcohol is 70% cheaper than it was in the 1980’s. Cheap alcohol leads to excessive drinking and reckless risky behaviour amongst young people which in turn leads to the previously mentioned ‘one a minute’ casualty admittance, not to mention the long term effects of alcohol dependency such as alcoholism, liver disease, brain damage and cardiovascular disease.
That said, alcohol does have some merits (i.e. medicinal, calming, pleasurable, and of course social), but unfortunately these merits dissipate when we drink too much of it! DoH guidelines are there for a reason, and consuming over those limits on a regular basis is not a good idea. Do you know what the guidelines are? Many people don’t. They are: 2 – 3 units a day for females and 3 – 4 units a day for males. A unit of alcohol is 8 mg or 10 ml of pure alcohol, so for example: a pint of lager = 2 units. A glass (175ml) of red or white wine at 13% strength = 2 - 3 units. So in fact, if you drink more than one glass of anything a day, you will be almost over the limit.
So, is alcohol good or bad for you? You decide! But also check out this website: Drinkaware It will help you to work out how much alcohol you drank last night!
For advice on nutrition or other health issues you can speak to Yvonne by clicking on her profile here
For more advice on drinking and other addictions view a full list of experts here
