Wine consumption guideline w/food?

The two glasses per day dictum was a compromise arrived at between the competing interests of discouraging alcoholism while not ignoring the health benefits attributed to the consumption of alcohol. The consensus from peer-reviewed studies is that people who consume moderate amounts of alcohol live longer than either teetotalers or those who consume large amounts of alcohol. The initial criticism that the teetotalers category included former alcoholics who had given up alcohol, but that has recently been put to rest with new studies that factor out that contingent.

So, what is "optimal"? Increasing consumption of wine, especially red wine, is associate with decreased incidence of heart disease, hypertension and neurological problems (Alzheimer's and Parkinsonism). At the same time, increased alcohol consumption is associated with a higher incidence of certain cancers. So, choose your disease. Variation between individuals also complicates the question. Is there any incidence of alcoholism in your family? Do you get hangovers easily?

Consumption of water helps; so does consuming wine with food (digestion of food slows the absorption of alcohol through the stomach lining). My own personal guideline is to avoid consuming more wine than feels healthy to me. How much that is will vary by circumstance. Over the course of a 4 hour dinner I am capable of consuming most of a 750 ml bottle and still feel good at the end. I wouldn't do that on a daily basis, though, so most nights I will have less than 375 ml with dinner. YMMV, as it no doubt will.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
Conventional wisdom vs. peer-reviewed scienceThe two glasses per day dictum was a compromise arrived at between the competing interests of discouraging alcoholism while not ignoring the health benefits attributed to the consumption of alcohol. The consensus from peer-reviewed studies is that people who consume moderate amounts of alcohol live longer than either teetotalers or those who consume large amounts of alcohol. The initial criticism that the teetotalers category included former alcoholics who had given up alcohol, but that has recently been put to rest with new studies that factor out that contingent.

So, what is "optimal"? Increasing consumption of wine, especially red wine, is associate with decreased incidence of heart disease, hypertension and neurological problems (Alzheimer's and Parkinsonism). At the same time, increased alcohol consumption is associated with a higher incidence of certain cancers. So, choose your disease. Variation between individuals also complicates the question. Is there any incidence of alcoholism in your family? Do you get hangovers easily?

Consumption of water helps; so does consuming wine with food (digestion of food slows the absorption of alcohol through the stomach lining). My own personal guideline is to avoid consuming more wine than feels healthy to me. How much that is will vary by circumstance. Over the course of a 4 hour dinner I am capable of consuming most of a 750 ml bottle and still feel good at the end. I wouldn't do that on a daily basis, though, so most nights I will have less than 375 ml with dinner. YMMV, as it no doubt will.

Mark Lipton
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Does this include Scotch or not?

I drink as much as I feel like and then stop. Sometimes it's too much, but most of the time it is just right.
 
originally posted by VLM:
I drink as much as I feel like and then stop. Sometimes it's too much, but most of the time it is just right.
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I know what you mean. But it takes a lot of experience around all the edges of the process to really understand these points.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by VLM:
I drink as much as I feel like and then stop. Sometimes it's too much, but most of the time it is just right.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. But it takes a lot of experience around all the edges of the process to really understand these points.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Well, I don't have any responsibilities in life other than my job and I'm in charge of my "Center", so I have flexibility WRT when I wake up and go in to work.

That being said, at my size, most of a bottle of wine in an evening doesn't really slow me down. It's the Scotch.
 
originally posted by VLM: I drink as much as I feel like and then stop. Sometimes it's too much, but most of the time it is just right.
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Nathan, Your strategy sounds rather like what Mark Twain described as being his strategy, "I eat more on some occasions than others, but never less."

Or perhaps like the strategy of that noted orator, Mae West, who said, "I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."

. . . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by VLM:
That being said, at my size, most of a bottle of wine in an evening doesn't really slow me down. It's the Scotch.
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Hey, I've also come to an understanding on these matters, through years of 'practice'. Like most of us, I imagine.

For some reason I've found a big difference between "most of" a bottle and the whole bottle. I don't necessarily get hangovers until I go above one bottle. Although I'm still sluggish with one bottle. However reducing that by just a bit has a huge reduction in the sluggishness, almost to the point of non-existence.
 
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