Alcohol Benefits Debate | Wine Adds Years to Life | Wine Temperatures

Baptist Press - CULTURE DIGEST: Benefits of alcohol in moderation debated; Barna poll assessed - News with a Christian Perspective Some experts are claiming that moderate alcohol consumption for health benefits has been overstated. "The bottom line is there has not been a single study done on moderate alcohol consumption and mortality outcomes that is a 'gold standard' kind of study -- the kind of randomized controlled clinical trial that we would be required to have in order to approve a new pharmaceutical agent in this country," Tim Naimi, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The New York Times in June. Other experts are claiming: Wine Adds Five Years to Life, More Than Beer, Dutch Study Finds - Bloomberg.com "Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live only 2 1/2 years longer." Web MD: Half a Glass of Wine for Longer Life "Researchers in the Netherlands conclude in a large study that drinking up to about half a glass of wine daily may boost life expectancy, at least in middle-aged men, by five years compared to men who men who drank no alcohol." The Baptist Press article above states the Southern Baptist stance: "The Southern Baptist Convention, in its most recent stance on alcohol, said because alcohol use has led to countless injuries and deaths on the nation's highways and because the breakup of families and homes can be directly and indirectly attributed to alcohol use, among other dangers, Southern Baptists should abstain from using it. Messengers to the 2006 SBC annual meeting expressed their "total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing, and consuming of alcoholic beverages" and urged Southern Baptists to be "actively involved in educating students and adults concerning the destructive nature of alcoholic beverages." Clearly we have conflicting opinions. For those of you who ignore Baptist opinions, Lifehacker has a nice chart recommending wine temperatures and chilling times: Wine Chart Recommends Proper Temperatures and Chilling Times - Drinking - Lifehacker