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The headline here reads oddly. The conclusion from this paper is: "Low-volume alcohol drinking was not associated with protection against death from all causes."

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Paraphrasing the findings paints a slightly different picture: "Drinking 25g (45g for males) of ethanol daily did not increase risk of mortality."

Basically, having 2/4 drinks per day isn't going to kill you. Drinking more than that definitely increases your risk of premature death, though.

Also, this is a meta-study that reiterates the findings of previous meta-studies on the topic.

Another problem is how different people define "Moderate". I'm pretty sure the CDC would classify 2-4 drinks per day as a very heavy drinker.

" no significant reductions in risk of all-cause mortality for drinkers who drank less than 25 g of ethanol per day"

"Conclusions and Relevance In this updated systematic review and meta-analysis, daily low or moderate alcohol intake was not significantly associated with all-cause mortality risk, while increased risk was evident at higher consumption levels, starting at lower levels for women than men."

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