Alcohol: Time to Put a Cork in It?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 12.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For decades we’ve been yanked around over alcohol: one day it’s actually good for us, the next day it’s a killer. And recently there’ve been reports that even a little bit of booze is bad for you overall. We first looked into this back in 2019, and since then the research has evolved faster than a nanobrewery’s tap list. So today we’re diving back into the science to find out: is just a bit of alcohol dangerous? We talk to epidemiologist and nutritionist Prof. Eric Rimm, psychologist Prof. Tim Stockwell, cancer researcher Dr. Susan Gapstur, and substance use disorder researcher Dr. Peter Butt. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/AlcoholCorkinItScienceVsTranscript In this episode, we cover: (00:00) The debate over alcohol (03:26) Why alcohol might be good for us (10:10) Why alcohol might be bad for us (16:30) Why are experts recommending even less alcohol now? (19:30) Alcohol and cancer risk (25:32) Our conclusion on alcohol Credits: This episode was produced by Meryl Horn with help from R.E. Natowicz, Wendy Zukerman as well as Disha Bhagat, Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang, Joel Werner, and Kaitlyn Sawrey. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Editing help from Caitlin Kenney. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard, Michelle Harris and Michelle Dang. Mix and sound design by Catherine Anderson, Bobby Lord and Peter Leonard. Music by Peter Leonard, Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode including Dr. Arthur Klatsky, Dr. Krishna Aragam, Dr. William Kerr, Dr. Tim Niami, Professor William Ghali, Dr. Wendy Chen, Max Griswold and many others. Recording help from Andrew Stelzer, Susanna Capelouto, Katie Sage, and Joseph Fridman. Also thanks to Lynn Levy, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and a Gimlet production. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you wanna receive notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Vs from Gimlet.
0:04.0	Today we're pitting facts against old fashions.
0:10.0	As we look at alcohol,
0:13.0	should we put a call in it?
0:20.0	It feels like we've been yanked around for years
0:23.0	about whether drinking a little alcohol is okay or not.
0:27.0	Like several years ago, there was news that drinking a glass or two was practically a health food.
0:33.0	There is ground-breaking new research on the benefits of drinking alcohol moderately.
0:38.0	Many studies have shown that drinking a moderate amount of red wine can help the fight against heart disease,
0:44.0	Alzheimer's, and some cancers.
0:46.0	One to two glasses of something a day that might actually be pretty good for you.
0:51.0	But then, earlier this year,
0:53.0	it felt like public health wonks from Canada pissed in everyone's beer by saying the healthiest thing to do here.
1:00.0	Think about taking it easy on those daily drinks.
1:05.0	You guidance out this week on drinking alcohol?
1:08.0	Experts recommending no more than two drinks a week.
1:12.0	Other reports seem to take things even further.
1:15.0	We hate to be the ones to break some sobering news to you.
1:18.0	But a major new study says no amount of alcohol is good for your overall health.
1:23.0	Even that one glass of wine at dinner does more harm than good.
1:27.0	No amount of alcohol is good for you, not even a little bit.
1:30.0	Is this thing that a lot of us love doing after a stressful day at work?
	...

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