The empire strikes back
Will I live to the ripe old age of 93 because I have never touched alcohol, but have eaten lots of wholemeal bread, done my exercises and gone to bed early? Or will I escape the Grim Reaper because I enjoy my food and drink, don’t say no to pork crackling followed by two vodkas, organise a large family, listen to Mozart operas and obey the whims of our cat? The self-styled experts in the field of alcohol research will probably underline the former, whereas any self-respecting scientist will argue: that depends. There are thousands of factors influencing our daily life. Yet, again and again, anti-alcohol lobbyists grab the headlines with findings which turn almost everybody, except perhaps for the fundamentalist teetotaller, into a self-abusing binge drinker and hence a burden on society.
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