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Comment by taeric | Hacker News Reader

These reports only make sense to me if I take a "substitution model" in mind. My idea being that it is not likely that alcohol itself is healthy, but there are some pretty good feedback loops that prevent people from drinking too much alcohol that don't really exist for many of the replacement drinks.

As such, many people that drink "moderately" also drink less of all things. Often times, their "one drink with dinner" is all they drink, period. Contrasted to the bottomless soda drinks that are also on offer.

Granted, I'm still not clear I have internalized my few trips to other countries. I had assumed people would drink more water. I was, evidently, very wrong. It is still puzzling to me how little water I was able to get on the regular when out.

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The theory about moderation being a trait that applies to a person in general makes sense.

However, I think the most health-conscious people today probably don't drink at all due to recent sentiment leaning more toward even moderate drinking being harmful. I also assume their health-awareness would preclude them from replacing alcohol with sugary drinks or other unhealthy options.

So I continue to find it interesting when studies show reduced all-cause mortality for moderate drinkers.

I'm curious on numbers, there. Most health-conscious people I know still drink a fair bit. They are also just very active.

Of course, there is the obnoxious thing where the most opinionated person about what you should be eating often turns out to be one of the least healthy at the table.

What makes one ‘the most health-conscious?’ Certainly all the fittest people I know drink… everyone in the triathlon group I swim with three times a week at 5:30 am drinks beer or wine, and all the people I go with and meet ski-touring, mountain biking, and backpacking drink. In fact, the city I live in, is regularly noted as one of the booziest towns in the states but if you walk around town there are few people who are not fit as can be. I can’t find good age stats for Bend, Oregon, but I drink and play cribbage a few times a month with some pretty healthy octogenarians. Obviously my sample size is limited.

This fits my observations, as well. I do think there is a set of hyper focused gym people that are looking to optimize their health choices. And in that crowd, I suspect they have largely dropped alcohol. Among the generally active, though, a large driver of that activity is social contact. And moderate drinking is still quite high in most social settings. (Well, at least here in the US.)

Now, again, I want to stress that I don't think my mental model has alcohol as healthy. Especially not to the level that I find I will drink, if given the chance. It is not the highest factor, though.

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