Go ahead, belly up to the bar.
No, really, it’s OK. In fact, it could be good for you–just don’t become attached to the bar stool.
In his fourth book on the subject, “The Science of Healthy Drinking,” author Gene Ford makes his case that ideal imbibing provides benefits for more human conditions than almost any other food or drug.
“The logic of the book is really quite simple,” Ford said from Seattle during a phone interview. “The healthiest people on the face of the Earth are people who drink [alcohol] moderately.”
Across the medical community, some doctors advocate Ford’s conclusions. Others, while acknowledging that enough research exists to suggest that moderate drinking can be healthy, are reluctant to endorse those findings without warning about the potential problems alcohol can cause.
Ford’s assertion is based on his survey of more than 1,400 studies, medical journal and newsletter articles written on the effects of moderate alcohol consumption. As a journalist and not a trained doctor, he uses an epidemiological approach to the science reported in his book. In other words, rather than delve deeply into the chemistry of how alcohol makes the human body healthy, he said he presents his arguments based on overall statistics.
For instance, Ford includes a chapter presenting several studies that found that moderate drinkers earn higher incomes, and he explains that the studies correlate financial health with human health. He also admits in the chapter that the presumption that higher income could be a healthy drinking benefit borders on the bizarre, but that’s what the numbers reveal, nonetheless.
Ford said moderate drinking is defined by using the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines of two drinks per day for men, one for women. A drink consists of four ounces of wine, a 12-ounce beer or a shot of liquor. He said despite reports that red wine is healthier than other types of alcohol, the data supports the benefit of any alcohol, regardless of the source.