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Even Light Drinking is Harmful to Older Adults, Study Warns: ‘From the First Drop’

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. . .New research suggests that no amount of alcohol is beneficial to your health or safe to consume as you age.

A 12-year United Kingdom study that tracked 135,000 adults 60 and older found that even light drinking was associated with an increase in cancer deaths. This uptick was most pronounced in older adults who live in low-income areas and have health troubles.

These findings contradict the previously held belief that small quantities of alcohol, particularly red wine, are good for the heart. This belief is based on shoddy evidence that the vino-avowed French have lower rates of heart disease.

The new research, published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open, maintained there was no reduction in heart disease deaths among light or moderate drinkers, regardless of their health or socioeconomic status. . .

She added that far from being good for you, consuming alcohol likely raises the risk of cancer “from the first drop.” (Read more from “Even Light Drinking is Harmful to Older Adults, Study Warns: ‘From the First Drop’” HERE)

The Feds Have Approved Palcohol, Powdered Alcohol [+video]

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A product is expected to hit shelves this summer to turn water into wine — well, into vodka, rum and a few cocktails — but not everyone is happy about it.

Palcohol, or powdered alcohol, was approved this week by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, part of the U.S. Treasury Department. But the powder packets that can turn water into a mixed drink have already been banned by several states amid fears that Palcohol can be easily abused.

“As a parent, it’s one thing to patrol for cases of beer or bottles of booze,” said ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser, who is also a pediatrician. “But having to look for little packets, I worry that it could lead to more underage drinking, making it easier.”


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He said he wasn’t happy with the federal approval and explained there isn’t much the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can do it about it right away. The FDA can only take products like this off shelves if they find a problem, he said, which is what happened with alcoholic energy drinks called Four Loko. (Read more from “The Feds Have Approved Palcohol, Powdered Alcohol” HERE)

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Hillary and John Kerry’s State Department Boozing it Up: Spent Hundreds of Thousands of our Tax Dollars on Liquor (+video)

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Photo Credit: Foreign PolicyWhile the rest of the government prepared to shut down this fall, the State Department was busy stocking up on embassy liquor supplies.

In September, the final month of the fiscal year, the State Department spent about $180,000 — and racked up a total of more than $400,000 for the whole year, three times the entire liquor tab for all of 2008.

The liquor bill, split among purchase orders placed at embassies around the world, included some major last-minute pre-shutdown splurges:

• $5,625 in “gratuity wine” at the embassy in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 29, followed by $5,925 in “gratuity whiskey” on the day the shutdown began.

• $22,416 in wine at the embassy in Tokyo.

Read more about booze in John Kerry’s State Department HERE.