Most people like to wind down with a glass of wine or two after work or on weekends. Sometimes, well, we like to drink a little more than a glass or two. If you’re into wine, you can probably put away a bottle each week — after all, that’s about one glass with dinner each night.
And for the longest time, we’ve been told that a glass of vino — specifically red — with dinner is the elixir of life, since it contains resveratrol, a known antioxidant.
Quick lesson: Antioxidants aren’t just a buzzword; they’re chemicals that fight oxidation caused by cell-damaging free radicals (free radicals come from the environment, some foods, chemicals, and even, yes, even excessive alcohol).
Some doctors will suggest sticking to drinks a few times a week, or one per day, while others seem like they’re sponsored by The Mediterranean Diet itself (not really, though!). Other docs say that we’d need to drink a LOT of wine to get the resveratrol benefits — and that it’s basically not helpful in any way.
Now, a new study is suggesting something else entirely. Specifically, BMC Public Health published a comparison of gender-linked population cancer risks between alcohol and tobacco: how many cigarettes are there in a bottle of wine?
The researchers attempted to hone in on the risk of cancer that alcohol may cause.
They shockingly found that a single bottle of wine each week may cause the same risk of cancer as smoking 10 cigarettes a week. Um, what?
Of course, most health-conscious people would never dream of smoking a cigarette, but they’d definitely drink wine with friends.
So, what does it all mean?!
They found that a single bottle of wine a week for men who don’t smoke was associated with a one percent rise in the risk of overall cancer. Hm.
A new paper has estimated the risk of cancer associated with drinking moderate levels of alcohol, and compared it to the risk of cancer associated with smoking.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) March 28, 2019
A bottle of wine per week has the same cancer risk as 10 cigarettes per week for women.
More: https://t.co/qdnBjjqzev pic.twitter.com/H6n9M4OuoD
They found that the same bottle of wine kicked up the percent of risk to 1.4 for non-smoking women.
Men are more likely to suffer from gastrointestinal cancers from drinking alcohol, whereas, for women, the risk of breast cancer was the highest.https://t.co/B8hQ1BKaKA
— News Nation (@NewsNationTV) April 2, 2019
They concluded, “One bottle of wine per week is associated with an increased absolute lifetime risk of alcohol-related cancers in women, driven by breast cancer, equivalent to the increased absolute cancer risk associated with ten cigarettes per week. These findings can help communicate that moderate levels of drinking are an important public health risk for women. The risks for men, equivalent to five cigarettes per week, are also of note.”
ll be dead…oh…by the time you finish reading this.https://t.co/fscW66slAO
— Carl Kruse (@Carl_Kruse) March 30, 2019
Slow down, though. Lots of experts are warning us not to start freaking out. Someone even called it irresponsible and sensationalist:
The study aimed to find the “absolute increase in lifetime cancer risk,” which really means there are too many variables to simply state that wine is as risky as cigarettes and that it will cause cancer. In short, the study didn’t address many important questions.
In fact, as Bustle reported, oncologist Dr. Francisco Esteva of the Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center told HuffPost,
“Comparing the cancer risks associated with a specific number of cigarettes to a bottle of wine is quite simplistic and may send the wrong message.”
I was quoted on this Huff Post article today. I expressed a cautious opinion on a study comparing cancer risk from alcohol and cigarette smoking. https://t.co/nKwPcK5MB0
— Dr. Francisco J. Esteva (@DrEsteva) April 1, 2019
The is-it-good-or-is-it-bad debate has been going on for a long, long time. And this study seemed to have only complicated matters.
There is a lot of conflicting evidence and research. And that’s because there are so many variables at play.
In the end, we need to be careful about the way we communicate cancer risk to the public. This is a good point:
New research directly compares cancer risks associated with smoking and moderate alcohol intake. Prompting the question, do risks of alcohol consumption need to be better communicated?
— BMC (@BioMedCentral) April 1, 2019
So, before you find yourself frightened of hitting up a wine bar with friends, know that moderation, meaning a few glasses a week — and an overall healthy lifestyle with a clean diet, stress management, and exercise — really is key.
Drinking wine is technically healthy eating, right? Tag your best fruit/wine buddy 🍇💁 pic.twitter.com/5qWxQM7h4L
— Huff Estates Winery (@HuffEstatesWine) April 3, 2019
And as always, make sure you do your own research before coming to any conclusions.
