There's no doubt that alcohol in excess is very bad for a person. There's enough doubt about whether light-moderate alcohol consumption (i.e. a small glass of

There's no doubt that alcohol in excess is very bad for a person. There's enough doubt about whether light-moderate alcohol consumption (i.e. a small glass of red wine with dinner and two or three once in a while with friends) is harmful or protective that it seems pretty clear that, whether the net effect is positive or negative, it's not terribly strong. We get really hung up on whether something is "good for you" or "bad for you", without focusing as much as we should on exactly how bad it is: we just want to sort things into either the "good" bucket or the "bad" bucket and feel the corresponding dose of pride or guilt.