An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but what about a beer a day? Or for that matter, a glass of wine or even a shot of hard liquor?
It's well-established that drinking too much, even every once in a while, is bad for you, but there's often uncertainty regarding how moderate drinking affects health. There are some negatives, and some positives, so decisions about whether to drink really depend on people's individual situations, said Dr. Sam Zakhari, the director of the metabolism and health effects at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
But first, establishing what "moderate drinking" means is key for anyone looking for health benefits associated with alcohol, Zakhari said. For men, moderation means no more than two drinks a day, while for women, moderation means no more than one drink a day. Zakhari emphasized that drinking seven drinks in one day, and not drinking the rest of the week, will have dramatically worse effects on health, even though it averages to the same levels of consumption.