To Drink Or Not To Drink

This was a big week for hard news... Kim Kardashian's sham wedding ended in divorce, Michael Jackson's prescription-happy doctor could be spending some time in public housing, and oh by the way Greek debt is threatening to take down the world economy. So perhaps you might have missed the coverage of the new Harvard study linking alcohol consumption to breast cancer. If you did catch a headline or a 30 second blurb on your local news, you probably immediately swore off alcohol for good… or maybe you cracked open a bottle right then and there because, at this point, what does it matter? You are obviously already doomed.

The new study indicates that drinking as few as three alcoholic beverages a week may increase a woman’s risk for breast cancer.
Harvard Medical School researchers analyzed data collected between 1980 and 2008 from 105,986 women in the Nurses’ Health Study, an ongoing project scrutinizing women’s health issues.  A total of 7,690 of those women received a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. According to the study findings, those women who consumed 3-6 glasses of wine a week were 15% more likely to receive a diagnosis of breast cancer.

This is not the first time we have heard of a study linking alcohol to cancer, but this time the results are not so cut and dried. For every study linking cancer to alcohol consumption, there is yet another study praising moderate alcohol consumption for its links to decreased rates of cardiovascular disease.

So… where does that leave us? Should we drink or abstain? Unfortunately, there are no clear answers from the experts.

Just to be clear, I am not one of those experts. I do not have a medical degree, and sometimes I can barely understand the medical jargon on the label of an aspirin bottle. BUT common sense tells me that we should question some of these findings. First, I wonder what other lifestyle factors could have contributed to a breast cancer diagnosis.  Do these women have a lot of stress?  Do they get enough sleep?  Second, the researchers don’t tell us what types of diets these women followed or whether they exercised regularly. It’s possible that some of the women in the study who were diagnosed with breast cancer were not active and also had an affinity for Big Macs and Krispy Kremes. The only thing we know for certain about these women is they estimate that they drink between 3-6 glasses of wine each week.

Rather than swearing off our nightly glass of wine, wouldn’t we be better served by improving our overall diet? I would bet my favorite bottle of chardonnay that our fast food mentality has a lot more to do with the higher incidence of cancer than one glass of wine a day.

What then should we do?  To begin with, we should start by significantly cutting back on our excess sugar consumption. After all, sugar is metabolized in our bodies in virtually the same way as alcohol, so it stands to reason that excess sugar could also contribute to higher rates of cancer. Most of us consume a hell of a lot more sugar each day compared to the amount of alcohol we drink. (OK, OK… I said “most” of us.)

Anyone who suffers from diabetes knows that sugar is almost impossible to avoid in the modern American diet.  It is added to just about every processed food we consume. I am not just talking about soda and dessert folks. I am talking about the basics -- bread, cereal, crackers, yogurt, peanut butter, soup, condiments, etc. Our food is loaded with the stuff – either high fructose corn syrup or the not-really-very-much-better “natural” sugar.  We are all paying the price with our health.

So what’s a girl to do?

Here’s a quick checklist:

First, clean out your pantry.  Throw away the candy and put down that trendy cupcake – it cost way too much and it doesn’t have a lick of nutritional value. 

Next, go shopping and buy more fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Lastly, when you get home, pick up your favorite glass of red wine and say a toast to your health.