Modern life is too often a mechanical oppression,” Ernest Hemingway wrote to critic Ivan Kashin in 1935, “and liquor is the only mechanical relief.” Hemingway likely knew then, as all of us do now, that alcohol in excess is not the best thing for the body or soul, and it’s especially bad when you “write or when you fight”. But in the current age of scientism and “wellness”, even moderation isn’t enough. Researchers have studied over a 100 studies about alcohol consumption over the decades (the report was published in JAMA Network Open) and come to the conclusion that there’s no such thing as a healthy amount of alcohol.
Unlike tobacco or other psychoactive drugs, alcohol enjoys a certain social sanction. In fact, medical “facts” like a couple of glasses of wine, or the odd beer, are actually good for the health have been shared for years now. But now, that solace is gone. Imagine a world where the tedium of an official dinner, or the boring wedding of a faraway cousin has to be suffered through without the adequate lubrication. Or one where the quiet glass of wine after work, just to shift gears as another day at the job you barely tolerate winds down, has to be measured against the depressing arithmetic of one’s impending mortality.
But perhaps there’s another way to look at the research’s findings, which is to not look at them at all. There is little point in trying to show, for example, that the stress-relieving effects of a drink or two might end up helping certain conditions. The JAMA paper establishes that earlier studies that claimed health benefits for moderation were flawed. So be it. Better, then, to say maybe a drink or two does some harm — but sometimes, it feels good. And that’s enough for one more round.
