• twistedtxb@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The fact that wine and beer bottles are exempt from those Nutrition Facts labels is utter nonsense.

    If people knew how much sugar and calories are in their drink maybe they would think twice

    • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I was drinking a while claw with my mother-in-law, and reflected that 100 calories was pretty good.

      She responded she preferred her normal vodka sodas because they have 0 calories…

      • xpinchx@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Honestly I wouldn’t know if I didn’t have to take nutrition 101 in college.

        Actually who am I kidding if I didn’t know I probably would’ve googled it.

        • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          There are a lot less calories in a litre of vodka than the alcohol content equivalent of beer. Hard liquor is much lower calorie than beer, but you’re not meant to sit around and drink a litre of fucking vodka dude. That’s definitely not on “the sources” lol

    • Rusty@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      There are nutrition labels on alcohol in Europe, but people there drink as much as here.

      • Blaidd@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Europe drinks way more alcohol than North America

        Excerpt from the article:

        If you feel that Europeans drink a lot, your hunch is correct: people across the continent consume more alcohol than in any other part of the world. Each year in Europe, every person aged 15 and over consumes, on average, 9.5 litres of pure alcohol, which is equivalent to around 190 litres of beer, 80 litres of wine or 24 litres of spirits. That’s according to the 2021 European health report by the World Health Organization (WHO).

        • snooggums@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          The cans of beer that I buy have ingredients and nutrition info like a soda can does.

          Haven’t seen any on liquor bottles though.

          • Kalash@feddit.ch
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            1 year ago

            I don’t have any liquor bottles, but my wine bottles have ingredients info, but no nutrition info.

            • Hyperi0n@lemmy.film
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              1 year ago

              Depends on from where they were sourced.

              My Itallian red wine has nutritional info, French sourced white wine has nutritional info, American sourced red wine has nothing.

              A short search states that the US doesnt have to have labels on alcohol because it’s not regulated by the FDA.

              In Canada beer alcohol isn’t required to have nutritional info.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      The fact that wine and beer bottles are exempt from those Nutrition Facts labels is utter nonsense.

      I did not know that. That is nuts.

  • tellah@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Meanwhile cannabis beverages are required to have:

    -Nutrition facts including calories, sugar, etc.

    -Gigantic yellow warning with random health warning (e.g., don’t use if pregnant)

    -Huge red stop sign cannabis leaf logo

    -KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN

    -Big pain in the ass plastic childproof thing

    None of these required on a can of beer.

    From a harm reduction perspective, it’s a massive failure. Many cannabis beverages have very low nearly zero calories, sugar-free. For your physical health they are almost certainly less harmful than alcohol and I know many people would enjoy them as an alternative to alcohol.

    We have faced a similar failure in harm reduction strategy regarding vaping versus tobacco. I think in both cases it’s a result of vested interests (tax revenue, lobbying, don’t know) trumping what is best for people.

      • jcrm@kbin.social
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        To who? Because we’re still the only country with it fully legalized for recreational use. I fail to see how that’s embarrassing at all.

        We used to have weird rules on alcohol too, and just like those, cannabis rules have been getting better as time has gone on. You can’t expect a world first system to be perfect right out of the gate.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        To me the worst part is allowing at parks, so now myself or young kids have to experience the stench of some asshat not caring about fellow citizens and they recreation time.

      • Tired8281@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        This is what happens when you have a large segment of the population that is both opposed to something, and not terribly against acting in bad faith. You get poison pills in your regulations.

        • bl4ckblooc@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Taxes are too high, rules for storage actively ruin the products. It really didn’t do much to stop illicit sales; most people I know that didn’t start smoking when it became illegal never buy from the dispensary. They did a terrible job of handing out liscensing, and most of the people who got them were just rich people making an investment(and lots of them had previously supported prohibition because they are also involved in alcohol sales) instead of working with non violent offenders to help them transition. And the edibles and drinkables people are talking about are so bad because the government made arbitrary THC limits.

        • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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          Presumably he means that Canada didn’t handle it, aside from lifting the prohibition, as it is a provincial matter.

          • bl4ckblooc@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Health Canada has also made some ridiculous limitations. They are the reason all the warning labels have to be on everything, and why packaging is so bad that it ruins the buds. They also established some very restrictive rules regarding edibles and extracts. A 10mg limit for edibles is crazy and one of the big reasons that black market edibles are so popular.

    • Hyperi0n@lemmy.film
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      1 year ago

      Cannabis, unlike alcohol and tobacco, has a high chance of causing long term and devastating effects on youth. This is a fact proven by science. Ease of access to alcohol should be heavily reduced and warnings should be places on them, Conservative ran alcohol lobbies always block that idea.

      Vaping has been scientifically proven to be just as bad, if not worse for you health not to mention the negative environmental factor. It should follow the same path as tobaccos; no branding, no labels, health warning, removal of flavors, fines for vaping in public spaces.

      • bjorney@bjorney.lol
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        1 year ago

        high chance of causing long term and devastating effects on youth.

        There is a substantial body of evidence proving alcohol is extremely bad for brain development

      • tellah@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Surprised to hear someone so confidently asserting that more prohibition is necessary. None of what you suggested really aligns with harm reduction and I would argue that more restrictions on vaping and on alcohol would backfire in terms of black market availability and less regulatory oversight.

        I’m unaware of the proof that vaping is as bad or worse than tobacco. My understanding is that the consensus is vaping, while harmful, is significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/vaping-substantially-less-harmful-than-smoking-largest-review-of-its-kind-finds

        And for the record, typically how it works when you want to make a claim about proof and evidence is that you cite your sources. You can’t simply use hyperbolic language, wave your hands and say the magic word “science” and expect people to just believe you.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      I’d like a ban on all forms of advertising.

      Marketing is nothing more than getting people to buy stuff they do not need.

      It is the reason we live in a consumer culture, and is the force behind some of the biggest problems humanity faces today.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Hell yes!

        The world would look so SO much better with advertising gone.

        Now we have to deal with 5x50 meters (sigh, 15 by 150 foot) video screens that illuminate the night sky and blind you while you are driving, but hey, BUY NIKE!

        This is not even mentioning brands buying up buildings and clubs and hospitals and what-not so that they can plaster their name over it. It sucks.

        Brand recognition has been a bane of our existence for the past century

        I might be up for a very VERY strictly limited form of advertising, limited to only a few spaces and times, but I’d love it that brands only show up when I ask them to. I need to buy a car? If I search “I want to buy a car” or something like that, then you can show me brands. Hell, even there, screw the shitty commercials, just show me the brand names and that’s it.

        • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Ha! It’s not just that!

          Where I live, they’ve got some sort of weird “The Future Is Electric” campaign going on. It’s on the busses, there’s a billboard of one near my place, and hell, that one’s powered so it shines brighter than the street lights at night!

          And what is it advertising? I have no idea. Just that our province paid for it. The province. For at least one powered, custom billboard along with who knows how many regular ads. For something that I can’t even start figuring out.

          Ads aren’t just ugly and a cheap way to make people spend money on things that they don’t need or even make their lives worse, but our tax dollars are spend on meaningless ads when there’s so many social and economic issues that are being actively ignored or even caused by the current governments.

    • worstcatintheworld@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I think alcohol advertising will eventually be banned but it’ll take a long time. Governments are addicted to the revenues.

            • Anon819450514@lemmy.ca
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              User is I would assume German, asking on a Canadian instance, and on post about a Canadian news. I’d say that’s pretty reasonable. Canadian is part of America, as well as the USA.

            • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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              Canada is within America. America is exceedingly broad, with so many different jurisdictions, all with their own rules. There is no single answer as to what the rules are across all of America. Since this is a Canadian forum, Canada was a reasonable choice to narrow down to.

              There is still room for you to dive into some of those other jurisdictions, if you find it pertinent, but I expect nobody here actually cares about what is going on in, say, Mexico.

              • keefshape@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                Canada is within the continent of North America.

                The concept of ‘America’ these days does not apply to continental plates, and you know that as well as i do.

                You know what I meant, and you are arguing disingenuously. We can all see it.

                • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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                  Canada is within the continent of North America.

                  And North America is located within America.

                  The concept of ‘America’ these days does not apply to continental plates

                  The thing is, we keep a record of how words are commonly used, and that record tells that it absolutely does refer to a set of continents. But, I know, let’s not let facts and figures get in the way of random internet nonsense.

                  You know what I meant

                  Yes, I know you meant it in jest. Nobody would actually take time out of their day to write such a comment earnestly. We can all see that.

              • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                America means USA

                It also refers to the combined area of North and South America. This the more likely usage here, as who would ask about whether or not the USA has such regulation in a Canadian forum? That would have no relevance.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I mean, aren’t the cigarette companies famous for being extreme lobbyists?

      • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        They did, if you look at late 20th century history. The lobbying and propaganda they did at the time was insane, but there was only so much they could do when people were dying from lung cancer, had trouble breathing, and even chewing tobacco was known to cause mouth cancer.

        They simply gave up trying so hard in the west and concentrated efforts in emerging markets. Do you remember the infamous video of the smoking baby a few years ago? Shit like that’s eerily common in places like Indonesia.

  • Melkath@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    And coffee, and butter, and sugar, and artificial sweeteners, and cannabis, and cars.,. prohibition is stupid. Mind your own fucking business. Stop trying to control others.

      • Melkath@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Alright, if that is true, and its not a baby step towards prohibition, let me fill you in on it. We fucking know and we don’t fucking care.

        Stop wasting government time and resources on empty soapboxing.

        We know what the propaganda says.

        • 利斯科@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Slippery slope fallacy. Also a lot of people actually don’t know that alcohol causes cancer and heart disease as well as homicide, etc. A lot of gullible people drink it because they are socially led to believe that it’s OK or perhaps even necessary, but these are not thinking or informed people. The fact that you call legitimate health information about alcohol “propaganda” shows that you’re not really in the “know” camp, doesn’t it?

      • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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        1 year ago

        Argument from fallacy. Just because an argument contains a fallacy doen not mean that its conclusion is false. In this context I feel like it would be much more effective to point out that cigarettes are totally unnecessary, while owning a car (depending on where you live) is not. Putting a warning label on something like cigarettes is not comparable to putting warning signs on something that you actively need to survive.

        • Melkath@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          “[cars] something that you actively need to survive.”

          You almost just made me spit out my beer.

          • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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            “[cars] (depending on where you live) something you actively need to survive.” Seems like you conveniently forgot something there. If you live in a place where you can walk to work and the grocery store that’s amazing for you! For many people having a vehicle is not a choice, but a necessity.

            • Melkath@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Uber.

              Let me say again, Uber.

              Busses, trains, scooters, electric vehicles of any kind.

              I’m not saying electric means no fossil fuel emissions of any kind. Almost everywhere is feeling varying growing pains exploring how to responsibly keep an ever more drawn upon electric grid charged.

              I’m saying gas fueled cars need to go away, not yesterday, but at least 15 years ago.

              Gas cars are what we as a species NEED to quit.

              Simple vices pale in comparison.

      • Melkath@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        If this was meant to invalidate my argument:

        Red herring fallacy

        Just invoking a simple fallacy without establishing it within the context is making a red herring of fallacies themselves.

        • Lininop@lemmy.ml
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          Sure I’ll establish it with in context. Just because “other things are also dangerous” doesn’t mean warning should not be on the label of a known carcinogen. This is coming from someone who drinks more than he should.

          Putting a warning on the label of a product known to cause harm isn’t “controlling others”. You are free to still consume the product. It is allowing you to make an informed choice, even if you are unaware or unable to access that information from other sources.

          • Melkath@kbin.social
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            1. I am in the US, and we have warnings but no nutritional facts on alcohol. In practice, I don’t like wasting government time creating restrictions on labeling just so they can be ignored, because the real reason for it is to baby step at making it a bespoken cultural norm that it is bad, therefore it should be banned and people who partake are bad by association.

            I think nutrition facts should be on everything, and if there is NO “hey kiddies, this is alcohol” on the can, okay, there can be one. Before I checked the context myself, I thought this was a “put pictures of tumors on cigarette packs, the simple warning isn’t good enough!” kind of conversation.

            1. Discounting my comment in the conversation of specifically putting warnings on alcohol as “slippery slope fallacy” takes all the other stuff I just mentioned out of the equation. Just like a simple “Alcohol can cause X” on the can, putting a simple “Butter causes high cholesterol and heart failure” is also a good idea. putting a simple “Caffeine causes addiction and vascular issues” is also a good idea. Putting a “Fossil Fuel Emissions cause cancer and global warming” on the gas pump/gas cap cover on your car is a good idea.

            I guess my point is that putting “Warning: Hot” on coffee cups is a waste of both government and private business resources. It does have some minimal merit though, but where do you start? I would be starting with Fossil Fuels. Those seem the most pressing and devastating of hazards we need to be addressing. If you are fixated on smokes and alcohol first, I think you have lost the plot.

            It IS possible to establish basic simple warnings on everything that should have them though. Not doing that, to me, reeks of pushing for prohibition.

            • Lininop@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              I agree with you that prohibition isn’t the way to do things. In my opinion the war on drugs is a waste of tax payers money and more importantly human life stuck behind bars. If you are speaking against criminalization of substances I’m with you. I’m however, not against harm reduction and education, including warning labels on products that are harmful.

              • Melkath@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Sounds like we are really close to meeting in the middle, I’m just a little more cautious about one part than you are and you are a little more cautious than me on a different part.

                Cheers!

    • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Artificial sweeteners are very safe and sugar is carbohydrates, which you almost need for energy and a healthy diet. Coffee and butter is also quite safe.

      But alcohol and tobacco? Any amount is harmful. Warnings wouldn’t be unreasonable for people to make more informed decisions. You’d be surprised at how many think alcohol is harmless. And its stuff you quite literally don’t need to live.

      • Melkath@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        You clearly don’t follow the news and aren’t very educated on the topic of carcinogens.

        Artificial Sweeteners are being found to be carcinogenic. Sugar causes obesity and diabetes. Coffee is addictive and causes vascular disorders. Butter causes high cholesterol and heart attacks.

        Tobacco and alcohol have no notable adverse impacts for at least 20 to 40 years (unless you drink to the point of alcohol poisoning, that is immediate).

        You clearly aren’t interested in knowledge or having a productive conversation. You just want to do the propagandist prohibitionist circlejerk.

  • Sim@lemmy.nz
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    And sugar. Off topic a bit, but my addiction is sugar and some reminders might make the occasional difference.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      One of the most overlooked influences on overall health and nutrition. Many people are not fully aware of their full intake. A lot of processed foods are 10% or more sugar by weight including breads, yogurts, and cereals. A few grams in everything you eat can really add up to a lot over the day.

      A more noticeable warning label of this food is x% of recomended sugar intake could help, but good luck forcing a corporation to do anything that could reduce sales.

      • sibannac@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        On US labels it has the percentage of daily intake for added sugars not all sugars. So there is some info on nutrition labels but everyone’s ‘daily’ intake is different and is usually more than on the label.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      I switched from coca cola to tea sweetened with a little honey, and one day I just dropped the honey. Without the coke, I think I’ve cut about 80% of my sugar intake. Now I drink loads of tea every day and even when we go to a fast food I will skip sugar beverages.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        They did that with smoking, I see zero results. I see people looking at those scary pictures and go “huh…” and then light a cigarette to get rid of the anxiety that that image gave them.

        • small_crow@lemmy.ca
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          Before I quit I would just put painters tape over the picture so I didn’t have to look at it. I didn’t want to carry around pictures of diseased body parts all day.

          Exception to this being the one with the droopy cigarette for ED. It was funny.

          Anyway I don’t think those warnings influenced my quitting at all, because I avoided looking at them.

  • Adderbox76@lemmy.ca
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    Because alchol sellers aren’t widely considered as flat out evil as cigarette makers, meaning that they can still realistically grease the wheels of power with dump trucks full of money.

    I’m sure cigarette makers would love to the do the same thing, but no politician is dumb enough to risk taking “campaign contributions” from people who are widely considered to be the scum of the earth. Alcohol makers still have a level of respectability that lets them get away with it.

  • LakesLem@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Not really equivalent. Smoking permanently leaves all kind of nasty shit in your lungs and causes cancer. Also very addictive, making moderation physically difficult (alcohol can also be addictive but not to the same extremes). Alcohol in moderation isn’t really an issue. Pushing it more can give your liver a bad time, but as long as you give it a break before the point of disease it can bounce right back.

    There is a societal problem especially in the UK in that it’s seen as a sort of matter of pride to throw moderation out of the window and get as wasted as possible, but I have my doubts that graphic health warnings will do much about that. Either way it’s more an effect of society ignoring and sometimes even shaming moderation (how many times have you been shamed for going home before you fall over on a work’s night out) than the alcohol itself.

      • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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        “Alcohol might be safe in moderation, but we don’t have the research to know for sure.”

        Not exactly the most interesting of articles.

      • LakesLem@lemm.ee
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        Hmmm

        Still, as even they say, the less the safer. I’d say go after the low hanging fruit of binge drinkers (of which there are many).long before going after those of us who drink moderately.

        • Techognito@lemmy.world
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          I absolutely agree, and I didn’t mean to undermine your point in any way. I just wished to inform those that might not have been aware.

          Drinking less = less dangerous

          I also believe that “rewards” in moderation can be more healthy than avoiding everything that is unhealthy

          • LakesLem@lemm.ee
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            Yeah good input though. I’m surprised WHO sees it as worse than smoking. Not something I think I could ever find myself agreeing with, but honestly it seems every form of evidence/study these days has another one saying different so I don’t much believe in objective truth any more. Just going to enjoy life, as long as it lasts. Smoke literally feels nasty to me in a way that drinking (within reason) doesn’t.

      • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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        In my books Strange Planet has it right with labeling it “Mild Poison”. Kind of changed the relationship for me the odd time I do drink socially.

      • Woofcat@lemmy.ca
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        less than 1.5 litres of wine or less than 3.5 litres of beer or less than 450 millilitres of spirits per week.

        The WHO considers that light? Holy crap… so if you’re drinking 2 bottles of wine yourself per week you’re a “light drinker”

    • Mike@lemmy.ml
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      Smoking does not permanently leave anything in your lungs. The lungs constantly self clean and I believe after 10 years, all damage from any amount of smoking is removed.

      • LakesLem@lemm.ee
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        The scarring from all the heavy coughing etc?

        Still, rather not have all that sitting there for 10 years. The liver recovers from a few pints a lot quicker I believe, and even in the less favourable case of a fatty liver, a matter of weeks of abstienence rather than years. Disease of either, is probably a more dangerous situation.

  • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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    Or to the leading cause of death of Canadians: dietary cholesterol

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY0UY3FwoW4

    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Roberts-14/publication/23313863_The_Cause_of_Atherosclerosis/links/551477890cf283ee08364f81/The-Cause-of-Atherosclerosis.pdf

    The leading cause of death of Canadians can be eliminated strictly through diet and avoiding animal products that contain cholesterol. And yet we pour millions of dollars into research each year for cutting edge new drugs that give you (so claimed) a 20% reduction in heart attacks, while having dozens of unwanted side effects.

    If you’re relying on the government and industry to teach you how to be healthy and to provide the tools you need to do it, you’re going to die young.

      • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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        For most people the level of cholesterol in food has little effect on blood cholesterol.

        I should have said dietary animal fats (including cholesterol) leading to serum cholesterol instead of dietary cholesterol and I didn’t catch the point you were making right away

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      1 year ago

      Dietary cholesterol isn’t well correlated with serum cholesterol, which is what the paper you’ve linked is about. It even veers off into the natural conclusion if you believe that serum cholesterol is the only thing that matters: statin prescriptions for everyone!

  • KiloGex@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “I don’t want to say that there are necessarily equivalent health risks,”

    I mean, they said it themselves. Drinking responsibly and in moderation poses no recorded long-term health risks. But even 1 cigarette a day can cause serious harm.

    • mainframegremlin@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Not quite. Even the accepted amount poses increased threats to being diagnosed with cancer (it is a carcinogen at the end of the day): https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohols-effects-body

      It is incredibly worse with breast cancer too.

      “Evidence is consistent that intake, even intake of less than 10-15 grams per day, is associated with increased risk of this disease”

      https://arcr.niaaa.nih.gov/volume/40/2/alcohols-effects-breast-cancer-women

      • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That study is a major failure in one key respect: Europeans drink far more than North Americans on average … and have longer lifespans than North Americans on average.

        Perhaps there is something coughobesitycough that might be better to address first instead of going full metal Karen on people who enjoy a tipple at the pub at the end of a day?

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          And we Europeans would have an even longer lifespan if we didn’t drink literal poison.

          I get it, it is fun. I partake in it every so often.

          But don’t claim alcohol isn’t harmful. It is one of the most harmful drugs to your body and to society. Even worse than heroin. According to a UK study.

          Don’t forget that 60% of aggression where the police needs to intervene has to do with alcohol.

          • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Aggressive drunkenness is cultural.

            Drunks here get loud and maudlin, but not aggressive; nowhere near the extent of, say, British drunkards or Canadian ones, or American ones. Same in Japan, incidentally, and Korea.

            Alcohol reduces your inhibitions. What’s being inhibited is purely on the person being exposed and the culture they’re from.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      It looks harmless, since you need to drink in order to stay alive.

      But alcohol is nothing more than just poison. Which is why it gives our body the sensation of being poisoned.

      And it works in contrary, since it actively dehydrates the body.

    • rab@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Why are you so confident to say that? I think alcohol is probably worse than cigarettes

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I mean I could be wrong. The sense I’ve gotten is that a couple drinks is maybe on the same tier as a greasy meal.

        • rab@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Alcohol affects every organ in your body and is one of the only things where withdrawal can kill you

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            I just searched around a bit, and it seems surprisingly hard to find actual numbers for each separately. Do you have any? Life expectancy reduction would probably be the best measure.

  • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I wholly agree with the author of this article, but implementing something like this will meet a lot of resistance. Let’s not forget that cigarettes are a relatively new phenomenon, whereas alcohol is something we’ve consumed as a species since prehistoric times. There are a lot of cultural, social, and historical ties to the use of alcohol that people won’t let go easily and will make any attempt to reduce alcohol consumption an uphill battle.