Give up wine? Phthbbbb!
There's been a scary tsunami of headlines about alcohol and health lately, warning that we consider giving up wine completely. I say "Phthbbbb."
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The flurry of negative publicity about wine, beer, and liquor centers on two seemingly related issues: Alcohol in any amount, recent research suggests, can cause cancer and shorten our lives. And around the world, people are drinking less of all adult beverages and wine in particular.
In a report that came as a shock to a generation persuaded that moderate drinking – especially red wine – is good for our heart and cardiovascular health, the World Health Organization declared in January 2023 that No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.
“It is the alcohol that causes harm, not the beverage,” WHO concluded. “Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance classified as a Group 1 carcinogen … this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation, and tobacco.”
What’s more, WHO warned, risks start with the first drop. No current evidence points to a threshold amount below which consumption is safe; nor does any evidence of heart-health benefits outweigh the cancer risk.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. Surgeon General published a troubling Alcohol and Cancer Risk Advisory highlighting alcohol use as “a leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, contributing to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and about 20,000 cancer deaths each year.” Among other conclusions, the Surgeon General urged regulation, adding a stern cancer warning to the current warning label required on containers of alcohol.
Prohibition agents destroying barrels of liquor during the Prohibition era in the United States under the 18th Amendment from 1920-1933. As Ken Burns wrote in his PBS series, Prohibition, “For over a decade, the law that was meant to foster temperance instead fostered intemperance and excess. The solution the United States had devised to address the problem of alcohol abuse had instead made the problem even worse.” (Library of Congress photo via Wikipedia.)
These stern warnings got people’s attention, but it didn’t take long for pushback to get started. Dr. Erik Skovenborg, a Danish specialist in family medicine who has developed a deep interest in the health implications of drinking, wrote a thoughtful rebuttal to the WHO report, Challenging the WHO “no safe level” dogma, in the May 21, 2025 edition of The World of Fine Wine.
Calling the WHO report “a tale of weak associations and methodological issues,” Skovenborg clinically dissected its science and the paths by which it reached its conclusions. This is an excellent article. I recommmend reading it all. His final paragraph alone is worth the price of admission:
Aristotle taught that a speaker’s ability to persuade an audience is based on how well the speaker appeals to that audience in three different areas: logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos appeals to the audience’s reason, building up logical arguments. Pathos appeals to the emotions—trying to make the audience feel worried or even scared, for example. Ethos appeals to the speaker’s status or authority, making the audience more likely to trust them. With the assertion that “the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage,” the WHO has given pathos the highest priority; but by suggesting an evidenced “no risk” condition for enjoyment of wine, the WHO has irrevocably bungled its logos, and the flawed line of reasoning has blemished the WHO’s shining reputation with severe damage to its ethos.
So am I giving up wine? Not a chance. Or as I said above, “Phthbbbb.” But I’m very much in favor of moderation, and that’s why I like wine. I also don’t smoke, watch my weight and exercise, use sunscreen, check my house for radon, and have my doubts about processed meat, among other daily risks. But moderation, not prohibition, is the key.
As I said in a 2002 column and like to repeat now and then, “Moderation is the key, for many reasons that have nothing to do with any purported health benefits. Wine, like all alcoholic beverages, can be a blessing or a curse; and if a little of it makes good medicine, more is not better. Overconsumption risks both immediate injury for those foolish enough to drive while drunk, and long-term health problems for those who drink too much too often.”
I’ll drink to that, perhaps with a second glass of this week’s featured wine, Les Lunes 2024 “Cosmic Blend” North Coast Red Wine, an impressive evocation of both Bordeaux and old-school Northern California field blends in a tasty, food-friendly wine that comes in at a moderate 12.5% alcohol.
There’s been a scary tsunami of headlines about alcohol and health lately, warning that we consider giving up wine completely. I say “Phthbbbb.” What do you say?
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