Moderation is key
Before you lift that glass, consider this: It's not so much what you drink, but how much you drink that affects the potential for an extended life span. Most people get in trouble because they are hard-pressed to practice a little moderation in most things, and that's why they often find themselves out of balance.
But in the case of alcohol, a little seemingly goes a long way. Italian researchers report that while moderate drinking may lengthen your life, too much could shorten it. They took a look at data from 34 large studies involving more than 1 million people and 94,000 deaths. And when they were talking about moderate amounts, they are thinking up to four drinks per day for men and two drinks per day for women, and they summarized that the risk of death was reduced from any cause by 18 percent.
On the flip side, tipping the scale past moderation not only cancels the protection benefit, it also increases the risk of death.
The best bet, if you already partake of alcohol, is to make sure your intake is in moderation, and actually within the guidelines of a Mediterranean-based diet. With this way of eating, they recommend that one to two drinks a day is a good balance for men, and for women, one drink per day. And do it the Mediterranean way-drink it with meals, and especially wine, which is chock-full of a wide variety of health promoting flavonoid antioxidants. A couple glasses of wine rushed down on an empty stomach is a very different matter than the same amount sipped over the course of a relaxed meal. If you haven't read the March newsletter, be sure to check out the article on fatigue, where I give you a link to a website that has a common sense Mediterranean-based food pyramid.
