Wine: It seriously harms health

Imagine buying a bottle of wine and reading “It seriously harms health” written on the label. What would your reaction be? I would be seriously p****d off.

On the other side, we should not be too angry because according to a new study, within 5 years we will be able to drink something that look like wine and would make us feel like we are drinking alcohol, without any of the side effects.

What we seem to forget though is that wine has been drunk since 7000 BC; the problem is not the wine, alcohol is not evil, the problem is the people abusing it.

We are being told that almost everything we have been eating and drinking for the last thousands of years can kill us: meat is not good; wine is not good; sugar is not good; salt is not good. In a few decades, we will be told exactly what to eat and drink and in which quantity so that eating will become a punishment instead of a moment of joy, recreation, union. Someone even suggested that we should not bring sweets in the office to avoid tempting our colleagues that can’t or should not eat them and can’t control themselves. Parties would be a thing of the past: we could be sued for hosting one unless we get a written exclusion of liability signed by each guest. Is this the future we are heading to?

We have been told to substitute sugar with artificial sweeteners and now we are told to be careful, because they may have side effects. We try to fix a problem and end up creating another, when the easiest and most effective solution would be to educate to prevent abuse. A “fake” alcoholic drink won’t solve the problem exactly like sweeteners have not solved sugar’s derived health issues, and in a few years we may discover that the fake alcohol, after all, is not that safe.

The health warning was an express request of the Republic of Ireland to the EU, a request that has not been opposed and therefore, it was granted. And as we know, in the EU, once the precedent is there, many more countries could follow.

Considering that half of Europe, the southern half, is a major wine producer and wine is part of their culture, I will not expect to see warnings in these countries. However, we are going back towards a prohibition era, masked by “for our own good” label, to cover the incapacity and failure of governments to fix problems.

We also seem to forget that some of the countries with the longest life expectancy have wine, whether made with grapes or rice, as part of their diet, confirming that wine itself is not the problem.

If we look at what happened to cigarettes, which on the other side are very harmful, should we expect alcohol being banned from public places? Are we not being treated as children unable to make our own decisions? Do we really need to be told what we can or can't eat? Should we accept that because of a few that cannot contain themselves when they see a cake, we should all avoid bringing cakes to the office? Are we going to stop children from celebrating their birthdays because some of their friends should not be eating sweets?