The King of Pointland

The Health Benefits of Moderate Drinking . . .

... may not exist.

Researchers poured cold water on the idea that moderate drinking helps prevent heart disease, noting yesterday that many studies include teetotalers as a control group but don't ask why they do not drink.

Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- as much as two drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Some also found a lower risk of some cancers.

But a team at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the University of California at San Francisco analyzed 54 studies and found that only seven differentiated between people who abstain by choice and those who may have quit for health reasons.

When such studies show a higher death rate for abstainers than for moderate drinkers, it may be because of the poor health of some abstainers who recently quit drinking, they reported in the journal Addiction Research and Theory.

In the seven studies that included people who had not drunk alcohol for a long time by choice, there was no difference in rates of heart disease between drinkers and nondrinkers.

On the other hand, beer is tasty.