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A quarter of wine a day has a significantly greater benefit for health than complete abstinence from alcohol. This is stated by the German internist and preventive medicine specialist Dr. Johannes Scholl in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ, Paywall). He sees a clear benefit in all relevant studies for regular, moderate wine consumption with high-quality food, but emphasizes that the optimal dose is individual for each person. It is important that higher consumption always shows harmful effects, even with intermittent abstinence.
Scholl criticizes the 2018 published study as "scientifically unsound," which led to the WHO recommendation "There is no safe level of alcohol consumption." In it, lifelong abstainers were not used as a comparison standard for the effects of alcohol consumption, but rather the group with low alcohol consumption. The result thus shows an increasing risk with increasing alcohol consumption. However, the comparison figures with lifelong non-drinkers are in the appendix of the study - and these figures yield the same result as many other studies: People who never consume alcohol have a 30 percent higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Their overall mortality was 20 percent higher than that of moderate drinkers. The concealment of these facts is not scientifically justified, but politics.
Although alcohol increases the risk of some types of cancer, wine has a clearly positive effect on mortality rates from heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Ideally, around 20 grams of alcohol per day in connection with a Mediterranean diet is recommended. This corresponds to a quarter liter of wine. Wine has a more favorable effect than beer and spirits due to its ingredients.
The effects are also only favorable for those population groups that already have a relevant risk for such diseases. Young people benefit less from the positive effects of wine than middle-aged and older individuals. Alcohol is largely harmless up to a limit of 0.5 per mille. Only at higher blood alcohol levels do negative effects occur.
Dr. Johannes Scholl is a specialist in internal medicine, nutritional medicine, and sports medicine, as well as the first chairman of the German Academy for Preventive Medicine. He regularly leads events for medical training.
(al; Image: 123rf)
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