Becoming an Authority on the Question of Whether Wine is Safe To Consume
Required listening and reading on the topic of whether wine is safe to drink
The amount of time we devote to understanding an idea or an issue is directly proportionate to our ability to discuss that issue with confidence and authority. It is also true that our ability to coherently address issues and ideas depends almost entirely on the quality of sources we consult and interrogate as we seek to develop our understanding of that issue.
Toward the end of providing those concerned with the growing anti-alcohol movement in the United States and around the world, I want to draw your attention to two sources. They are related to one another and together provide a substantial foundation for appreciating the political and scientific motivations that are driving what some have called a “neo-prohibitionist” agenda.
First is journalist Felicity Carter’s interview with Dr. Tim Stockwell on her Wine+Health Podcast: “Is Moderate Drinking A Myth: Tim Stockwell and the J-Curve Controversy.”
Stockwell has been remarkably successful in influencing how people more and more view moderate alcohol consumption as harmful. To quote Felicity Carter:
Professor Tim Stockwell is the most influential figure in the world of alcohol right now. His research claiming there are no health benefits to moderate drinking has attracted wide media attention and directly led to people either moderating their alcohol intake or quitting altogether.
In fact, The New York Times has called him “one of the people most responsible for our cultural course correction on alcohol.”
The J-Curve hypothesis claims that people who drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol have lower all-cause mortality rates than those who drink heavily or not at all. Professor Stockwell challenges this hypothesis, arguing that many studies that support the J-Curve fail to account for the "sick quitter" phenomenon. This is what happens when people who have given up alcohol due to bad health are grouped with lifetime abstainers, which makes the health outcomes for moderate drinkers appear more favourable.
Her interview with Stockwell goes in depth into his study of alcohol’s effects, on the way alcohol has been studied, as well as Stockwell’s associations. It is a substantive interview that is a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand the way moderate consumption is being undermined today.
The second source I’m recommending is a response to this interview by one of Stockwell’s most prominent critics.