Without any intention of underestimating the problem, there is a real risk that medical arguments are being used as a weapon against life styles, which is currently the case against wine but that may involve other subjects in the future.
Alcohol consumption is responsible for some 4% of cancer cases in the world and of these 14% regard so-called moderate drinkers. The data is irrefutable and has recently been repeated in connection with Ireland’s decision, the first and, at the moment, the only one in Europe, to impose warning labels on containers of alcohol-based products to indicate they are a “health hazard”, similar to what currently exists for tobacco products.
If we look at the same data from another point of view, we find that 96% of cancer cases are not caused by alcohol and affect only 0.56% of moderate drinkers, which means that 99.44% of cancer cases do not involve moderate drinkers. In other words, we have the same data that, from different perspectives, draw conclusions that are definitely not the same.
There are other facts and figures, too. In 1986, per capita wine consumption in Italy stood at 68 liters a year, whereas today it sits at 37 liters. Wine production that year, on the other hand, was 77 million hectoliters compared to 45 million in 2022. What this demonstrates is that, without adopting specific laws aimed at limiting consumption, people appear to have self-regulated themselves and this for a variety of reasons, from those regarding diet to opting for other beverages.
All this in no way means that alcohol is beneficial, make no mistake. It only shows that a moderate consumption of alcohol, especially wine, represents an equally moderate risk and, in the case of wine, there are even some positive aspects related to the fact that wine is not just alcohol. At least 80% of wine is composed of water, while the rest includes polyphenols, organic acids and mannoproteins. From a cultural point of view, winemaking has been part of the traditions of Mediterranean peoples for thousands of years.
Were we to lump together all the vineyard lands in Italy, they could cover an area larger than the region of Liguria, which is some 6,000 sq. km. And this demonstrates how winegrowing is an integral and defining aspect of Italy’s landscape and territory.
Wine production, in its various ramifications, employs some one million people in Italy and many producers are those who take it upon themselves to maintain retaining walls, country roads and drainage systems for rainwater. Added to this, there are fewer land and mudslides where there are vineyards.
To be perfectly clear, wine is my passion, it is my job but here I am presenting facts and elaborating on them, not stating a case. Nevertheless, I do have some questions in regard to cases of cancer among moderate alcohol consumers. For those 0.56% of cancer cases (14% of 4%), which should in no way be disregarded, was the moderate consumption of alcohol the sole cause of contracting the disease? Is it possible there were also contributing factors? Did the subjects live in large cities where the air is polluted? Were they smokers? Were they overweight? Did they have other pre-conditions? Maybe not. However, these questions need to be addressed to ascertain how serious the real problem is and whether this may instead be a weaponizing of medical data to attack life styles, which in this case involves wine but in the future may be applied to many other aspects of life. For me, it is legitimate to pose these questions.
Let me again be perfectly clear, this is in no way an attempt to minimize problems related to the abuse of alcohol but only to underscore that there is a big difference between the abuse of alcohol and its moderate consumption. And it is only through a non-ideological approach that we can obtain a full understanding of a problem that, for many reasons, is very serious.
Allow me to conclude with a personal anecdote. My father is 100 years and six months old and since he was 15 years old he has had at least one glass of wine a day. He is thus a moderate drinker and he’s still doing well, he has never had a tumor and evidently that little bit of wine has only made him happy.
