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Every time someone posts one of those "people who have a glass of wine with dinner are healthier than non-drinkers" studies, I just want to scream like the mad (in every sense of the word) scientist I am about how correlation is not causation!
In order to truly prove that a little bit of wine makes you healthier, you'd have to do a randomized trial in which you made half the participants drink and half not drink, which would not only get dismissed with prejudice by the IRB, but it also would not work!
And really, what groups of people are over-represented among the non-drinkers? Former addicts, poor people who can't afford alcohol, and people with health conditions/on medications that don't play well with booze. Shockingly (/s), these are people who tend to be less healthy than average.
(Also, I'm just really fucking pissed off because people use that line to try to pressure me into drinking.)
In order to truly prove that a little bit of wine makes you healthier, you'd have to do a randomized trial in which you made half the participants drink and half not drink, which would not only get dismissed with prejudice by the IRB, but it also would not work!
And really, what groups of people are over-represented among the non-drinkers? Former addicts, poor people who can't afford alcohol, and people with health conditions/on medications that don't play well with booze. Shockingly (/s), these are people who tend to be less healthy than average.
(Also, I'm just really fucking pissed off because people use that line to try to pressure me into drinking.)
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