2024-08-16 21:17:20
For a long time, many people considered alcohol in moderation to be good for their health. But that is not true. The German Nutrition Society has now changed its position on this.
The German Nutrition Society (DGE) advises against drinking alcohol. This changes an earlier assessment. Even in moderation, alcohol is not healthy – there is no potentially health-promoting and safe amount of alcohol for safe consumption, writes the professional society in its new position paper. “Alcohol is a psychoactive drug” that has been identified as the cause of more than 200 negative health consequences such as illnesses and accidents. The paper replaces the previous reference value for recommended alcohol consumption.
Anyone who still wants to drink alcohol should avoid large quantities, advises the professional association. This applies especially to young people. Children, adolescents, pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding should not drink alcohol at all.
This was also the result of an analysis of various studies on the connection between alcohol consumption and health. The reason why studies have found health benefits from moderate alcohol consumption is due to biases caused by deficiencies in the study design, as researchers at the University of Victoria in Canada found. They evaluated 107 long-term studies on the connection between alcohol consumption and mortality.
According to the DGE, the connection between alcohol consumption and health is complex. Risk-reducing associations with alcohol consumption have been observed for a few chronic diseases. Overall, the burden of illness and death caused by alcohol is considerable worldwide and especially in Europe. Average alcohol consumption in Germany in 2019 was more than twice as high as the global average.
Alcohol consumption is associated with, among other things, developmental disorders in unborn children, accidents, injuries, violence and “psychosocial impairments of people who drink alcohol and their social environment,” the society writes. The short-term consequences include impairments in coordination, attention and reaction time.
In the long term, alcohol not only poses a risk of addiction. According to experts, alcohol also causes diseases: cancer (especially breast and colon cancer), cardiovascular diseases, stomach and intestinal diseases, diabetes, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s and other dementias.