‘I want to share the positive cardiovascular benefit trends in population studies for moderate drinking as well as the negatives like cancer and alcoholism, she said as she started her Keynote.

She said wine was not tobacco (found to be carcinogenic) yet some politicians were trying to malign it and regulate it as such. We teach our kids to cross the street, why can’t the producers and consumers be taught about moderations? After all, it was a beverage that wine gave pleasure and conviviality as a part of the Mediterranean diet for millennia. She even quoted an unknown Latin proverb, ‘Good wine gladdens a person’s heart.’

Also Read : 4th Edition of Wine Future in Coimbra Portugal deliberates on Future of Wine

Stressing that Prohibition didn’t work- the current alcohol lobby risked alienating our consumer and our trade and missing the opportunity to practice and teach moderation. To her, moderation is less than 2 glasses a day or 3-4 glasses in one day and no drinking a few days in the week- the amount is lesser for women.

More than a hundred prospective studies show an inverse association between light to moderate drinking and cardiovascular disease. They have observed a 30% reduction in Heart attacks, sudden cardiac deaths, periphera; vascular diseases and embolic strokes.

She acknowledged that cardiovascular effects in population studies do show that drinking alcohol raises the risks of some cancers; a report in New York Times had suggested that even a little alcohol could also harm your Health-recent research makes it clear that any amount of drinking can be detrimental. She did acknowledge that more than 4 drinks a day increased chances of heart attacks, Hypertension, abnormal heart rhythms and hemorrhagic stroke. Heavy consumption and in some cases even moderate consumption increases the chance of mouth, throat, esophagus, liver voice box, breast (for women) cancer and colon/ rectum cancer.

Also Read : Wine Future 2023 in Portugal on 7-9 November to focus on Solutions to current Challenges

Many other harmful factors

But Dr. Laura Catena who also founded Catena Institute of Wine also shared with the delegates an Environment chart which indicated that Diet played 30-35% role in increasing chances of cancer whereas tobacco was responsible for 25-30%. To a lesser extent infections increased these chances by 15-20% and obesity another 15-20%. While 10-20%.were ‘other causes’, alcohol caused only 4-6%. She also shared that 5-10% cancers were caused by genetic factors while the rest were due to environmental factors.

Recommendations

Laura talked about habits that lower cancer risks and recommended a Mediterranean diet with moderate   wine associated with lower cancer, lower cardiovascular risk and longer life.  The tannins in wine might even have an antioxidant effect. She advised drinking less but drinking better wine. She also advised drinking slowly and practicing the universally recommended mantra of drinking one glass of water with one glass of wine (1+1) to avoid dehydration, with meals and friends and family (implying not drinking alone). ‘Mitigate your cardiovascular and cancer risk by exercising and eating fruits,’ she stressed. She also advised increased consumption of omega 3 fats, eliminating sugars and refined carbohydrates.

Also Read : Wine Future on November 7-9 in Portugal to support Wines of Ukraine

Reduce anxiety

She talked of a new Study by the Medical Harvard School that finds connection between light to moderate drinking and lower anxiety and less activation of the amygdala (region of the brain primarily associated with emotional processes, which perhaps explains 20-40% reduction in Major Adverse Cardiac Events. The benefits were especially prevalent among people with a history of anxiety. (This perhaps explains mothers in UK pouring a glass of wine in the evening after a stressful day with the kids-editor)

Also Read : Wine Future 2023 in Portugal on 7-9 Nov to explore current Threats to the Industry

When quizzed about the recent Studies claiming higher chances of wine- drinking women getting breast cancer, she said she had also heard about the supposed 10% increase in the chances of getting breast cancer in women drinking even one glass of wine. But the studies did not highlight that there was a 10% chance of all of us getting cancer anyway. ‘So the increase in the possibility of getting breast cancer is 10% of that 10%, i.e., 1% and frankly for the pleasure it gives us, I am willing to take the chance,’ she said with a smile on her face.

‘But it is usually not possible to stay within the limits of moderation once you start drinking wine, so how do you maintain this practice’, I asked her. ‘Well, we maintain that discipline in our house. We have defined the maximum amount each one of us can drink and my husband also supports me on these limits of the measured amount. I don’t let him cross that limit either and the system is working fine for us,’ she says.

Also Read : Breaking Down Barriers- Theme for Wine Future 2023 on November 7-9 in Portugal

Dr. Laura Catena, is now a part-time active physician in San Francisop and a full-time winemaker making award winning Argentine wines. Her Adrianna Vineyards 2019 Malbec presented by the American reviewer Mark Squires at Wine Future Tasting of Magnificent Twelve, had scored 100 points with James Suckling. This happy and healthy face of Argentine wine industry, maintains a balance between being a medical doctor and a winemaker in her lifestyle and is confident that if one follows the rules and recommendation shelled out by her, wine would continue to be a pleasurable drink it had been for millennia if you drank within the limits of moderation.

Also Read : Wine & Heart Health Summit to Open on Feb. 14 at Napa

Also Read : Wine-An Affair Of The Heart

Subhash Arora

delWine is happy to state that her Keynote address and recommendations validate the stand taken by us that wine drinking in moderation- 2 glasses a day with a gap of a couple of days a week for men and 1 glass for women, is what would keep the doctor away, though we do recommend that you should take the advice of your personal physician before walking the vinous journey- editor