In a recent Huffington Post piece titled “The Hidden Health Benefits of Alcohol?” writer, psychologist and addiction expert Stanton Peele addresses a recent government report on drinking and the elderly.
Peele’s post discusses the impact of the 2010 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and how they validate that moderate drinking results in longer life and less incidence of dementia. To the contrary, a recent NY Times article reveals nothing of its benefits, but rather drinking’s negative impacts on the elderly.
Peele writes:
Taken together, the contrasting (or are they complimentary) emphases “drinking is only beneficial to older Americans,” “drinking is most harmful to older Americans,” sound like the punch line for a Groucho Marx joke — “You should never drink before you are old, and then you should quit.
Needless to say, the comments came rolling in with a vengeance. Peele responded with another post, “We Don’t Believe Alcohol’s Good For You!” in which he decided that rather than “piss people off individually, I thought I could piss everybody off more efficiently with this follow-up post.”
Some of the comments raise issues concerning politics, industry, advertising and medicine. It’s fascinating and frustrating. Yet it’s the good and bad, ups and downs, and yin and yang of women and drinking that we believe the Drinking Diaries is all about. Always feels free to share your thoughts…
