Summertime, Cancer and Wine

WITH graduations through, and parties being held, there is more time for drinking alcoholic beverages. So it may be a downer to bring out a recent study that put this favorite Filipino drink into the spotlight. But needless to say, being forewarned is being forearmed.

In October 2009, the International Agency for Research on Cancer updated its 1988 classification of acetaldehyde (“probable carcinogen in humans”) to Group I human carcinogen (“carcinogenic to humans”). And that is not for insignificant bases.

Thirteen medical researchers conducted a study involving 818 heavy drinkers found that acetaldehyde cause defects in their genes for the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.

Their findings came out in the November 2005 issue of the International Journal of Cancer.

If you should drink this summer, then let me share with you a recent study that evaluated the acetaldehyde content major groups of alcoholic beverages available in the market. This way you can choose those that pose the least health risk.

In 2008, DW Lachenmeier and his team made a large chemical survey of alcoholic beverages for their acetaldehyde content. They reported in the Food Chemical Toxicology that beer, for instance, contains... [Read more.]

(Photo courtesy of The Telegraph)

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 6 April 2011.

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