The boys and girls over at Oxford in the UK just released a bombshell study about alcohol, red wine included. Bottom line: ANY amount of alcohol can cause cancer. So, what about that daily glass of red wine? Wasn’t that supposed to be the daily elixir, full of good stuff like resveratrol, used to stave off heart disease and all that?

The UK study included women who were middle-aged (median age, 55 years), 75% of whom said they drank alcohol at a rate of 1 drink every day on average. Very few had more than 3 drinks per day and the types of alcohol were varied. Most drank wine.

One drink per day led to an extra 15 cancers per 1000 women. Two drinks led to an extra 30 cancers per 1000 women, in this study. That is admittedly pretty significant…on the other hand, it was based on self reporting. What that means is, who knows how much they REALLY drank…..it was on an honor system and no one checked a bottle count out back in the trash.

OK, well don’t panic, the researchers went on to say that there is probably a threshold below which all is good. Problem is, what is it? If you go above it, there seems to be a significant increase in breast cancer and, if you smoke, throat cancer. No, it’s not just the tobacco….there is some effect mixed in with alcohol too.

There is no question that alcohol in higher amounts produces liver disease and we have known about the throat cancer thing for a while. So, don’t smoke! Alcohol and tobacco definitely lead to bad things. But, for those who enjoy moderate alcohol, especially the red wine varietals, there is a boatload of documentation for health benefits. It’s true that much of the benefit is apparently from resveratrol, which does not require alcohol to be in the drink, but not all of it. So, I’m not going to split hairs.

What do I recommend? Well, we’re going to take it to the research team and dig up all of the evidence for you. So, stay tuned. As for now, I’m going to go enjoy my Cabernet this evening……