Women Are Smarter Than Governments And Health Experts

When messages get confusing, people switch off. This has been demonstrated in dietary advice, where it has been shown that the more complicated the diet; the less likely people are to follow it. It has now been shown that official government guidelines on drinking alcohol have little impact on the behavior of expectant mothers.

A study in the Medical Journal of Australia shows that 80% of Australian women consume alcohol while pregnant. The study looked at consumption before and after changes in guidelines in 2001. Prior to 2001, the government recommendation was to drink no alcohol during pregnancy. This was changed to a safe limit of 6 standard drinks per week or less than 2 per day. In 2009, the guidelines were changed back to total abstinence.

What has been shown is that the behavior of women during this time was unchanged. Some 60% of women consume a small amount of alcohol (consistent with the 2001 guidelines), 20% drink less than that and a little fewer than 20% don’t drink at all during pregnancy. Less than 1% were found to consume a level regarded as dangerous.

Much effort and expense goes into developing guidelines. Governments and health experts often wring their hands about people not following their advice

What is really interesting in these figures is that the vast majority (over 99%) of women can figure out what is reasonable themselves. The vast majority of women can work out what is a reasonable and safe amount of alcohol to drink. They are clearly dismissive of scare campaigns about the dangers of even one drink. The reason for this of course is that small amounts of alcohol have not actually been shown to do any damage to the fetus. In turn, the reason for this is that small amounts of alcohol are easily processed by the body ,with no adverse effects.

There are of course, renewed arguments over labeling of alcoholic beverages. Governments and in particular, public health officials, love to be seen as doing something and they particularly love to hector the general public who they generally regard as being stupid. This survey shows that women are actually much smarter than government guidelines and health officials.

Interestingly, at about the same time, another study emerged which suggested that women who drank one glass of wine a day might have children who were better behaved than those who either drank no alcohol or drank heavily. To be honest, I would be very suspicious of these findings. There is no reason why one glass of wine consumed during pregnancy should influence the behavior of a child later in life.

What was really interesting though is that the researchers, despite making this finding, advised women to continue to observe Government recommendations of total abstinence. If the finding is valid, then you think they would be advising one glass of wine per day. If this finding is not valid, then why has it been published at all?

It is easy to imaging the noise that would have been generated had the study shown that one glass of wine per day led to worse behavior in children. This would be hailed as vindication of Government guidelines.

Whilst many in health claim to be guided by science, it is fascinating to see how when the results of their science contradicts their pre-existing beliefs that results can be dismissed.

Rather than being guided by confusing and changing guidelines, clearly women are best guided by their own intuition.

Alcohol and Drinking Age-The Answer is to Set The Right Example

Alcohol is in the news fairly regularly. It is both the most widely used and most problematic of all the substances that we use. The thing about alcohol that sets it apart is that there is not only a safe level, but also arguably there is a level of consumption with health benefits. Modest consumption of red wine is good for the heart. Used correctly it is a social lubricant and a pleasure to enjoy. However, the problems caused by misuse of alcohol dwarf that of tobacco and all illicit drugs combined.

The problems caused by misuse and overuse of alcohol affect not only the individual through diseases including liver failure, dementia and some cancers but also others. This includes family and friends who may be subjected to violence or abuse. It also can affect total strangers if people drive under the influence of alcohol or are involved in violence in say hotels or nightclubs. Ultimately many deaths are directly attributable to the misuse of alcohol.

Now here is the thing. Alcohol itself is “inert”. In other words it is not the alcohol that is the problem. It is how people choose to use it. To use an example a knife is inert. It can be used to cut your food or it can be used to stab a person. The knife is the same. What is different is how it is used. In the same way that I have previously written about smoking as a choice, so too is alcohol use. The notion of the helpless addict is not correct and worse than that this thinking reinforces the idea that people are not able to change their behavior.

The latest call in Australia is to lift the drinking age to 21 from the current 18. There is a fundamental flaw in this thinking, which is that young people will not drink alcohol if they are under age. They already do. Lifting the legal age will not change this. Worse still it just criminalizes behavior clogging up police resources, and courts, which have better things to do.

What is needed is to teach young people about the proper use of alcohol. In this regard European cultures like the French and Italians do much better than Anglo Saxon cultures. Alcohol is seen as part of social occasions and the young are introduced to small quantities. They observe their elders enjoying a social use of wine, mainly, with meals. The way children learn most is through copying adults. This can be for better or worse.

Simply banning use has not and never has worked. Prohibition in the 1920s did not result in people not drinking. It resulted in profits for criminals. Telling people aged 18 that they can fight in wars and can vote but can not drink alcohol is ridiculous. More to the point it will not solve the issue of problem drinking as those who want to drink will do so anyway. It also assumes that it is just young people who misuse alcohol-and it is not.

We teach our children many things including how to use knives responsibly. We do not ban them from using knives till a legally set age. We let them ease into use at the age appropriate for the child. We guide them carefully until they can manage by themselves If we want to reduce alcohol miss-use in our young people we need to teach them responsible use via the same principle as we teach them to use knives.

This in reality means setting a good example.

Do as I say, not as I do, will not cut it.