In our trade of scribbling, one of the enduring principles is that “timeliness is the art and essence of journalism.”
For the bev/al industry – and especially the wine segment – that time is now. And the issue is health, a point acknowledged by the Silicon Valley Bank panel we report on yesterday. What makes that even more appropriate now than before?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a front page story reporting “One of America’s greatest achievements over much of the past century has been a huge decline in death rates from heart disease and strokes. . . . Now, that progress has stalled. . . . Particularly alarming is that the death rate is actually rising for middle-aged Americans.”
A chart with the story shows that deaths from heart disease had fallen so dramatically that it was expected to fall below cancer, becoming the No. 2 cause of death in the U.S. by this year. But the number of deaths from heart disease began to climb, starting in 2011.
Much of this problem relates to diet. It is beyond scientific argument that following a whole-food, plant-based diet can prevent and reverse heart disease. See this TEDx Talk (and a whole bunch more on YouTube). There are a number of books on the same topic.
Because it is indisputable that heart disease can be prevented and reversed, anti-alcohol zealots argue, instead, the alcohol consumption – even, they say, a single drink a day – can lead to cancer. So can milk. But a little bit of beer, wine or spirits is heart healthy.
Now, producers of bev/al products are prohibited from saying a little bit of their products is heart healthy. But trade associations aren’t. With heart disease on the rise, especially among younger people in the “heart-healthy” regions of the country such as Colorado, it’s time for bev/al trade associations to do what the Wine Institute did 30 years ago, namely get that message out through seminars for media, consumers and others.
Too much alcohol is deadly. A little bit is heart healthy. As for cancer, the risk is dose-dependent. That’s the state of scientific knowledge, and industry spokesmen should make sure everyone knows it.