Some of the stuff the article claims sounds a bit fishy: "The more alcohol a society consumes, the fewer alcohol-related problems and alcohol-related deaths (in

Some of the stuff the article claims sounds a bit fishy: "The more alcohol a society consumes, the fewer alcohol-related problems and alcohol-related deaths (including cirrhosis) it has." That said, there have been quite a few studies arguing that light to moderate drinking is healthier than abstinence (e.g., less cognitive decline [2], increased longevity [1, 3], etc). For the most part it seems like a U-shaped curve, since heavy drinkers lose these benefits. A comprehensive list of studies that claim benefits to health was put together by Prof. David Hanson of SUNY Potsdam, and it can be found here: http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/AlcoholAndHealth.html#.U_pwJvlSYpp http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/AlcoholAndHealth.html#.U_pwJ... In the Holahan et al. study [1], they found that moderate drinking was the best for longevity after studying mortality rates among 1,824 people. From their results: "Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk, heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23% increased risk. A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors, as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortality effect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers. However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers." [1] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01286.x/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.... [2] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713114506.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713114506.ht... [3] http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/02/heavy-drinkers-outlive-non-drinkers-longevity-never-tasted-so-good/ http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/02/heavy-drinkers-outlive-...