A tipple a day not healthy — A.L.A.C.

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 12

A tipple a day not healthy — A.L.A.C.

PA Palmerston North A claim that drinking alcohol would help prevent heart disease has been criticised by the Alcoholic Advisory Council. Professor Richard Batt, of the Massey University alcohol research team, has said that overseas research showed two to three drinks a day helped to prevent heart disease. The alcohol raised the levels of highdensity liproproteins which prevented fatty material accumulating in the arteries.

An A.L.A.C. adviser, Mr Keith Evans, said he believed Professor Batt was

quoting legitimate research, but his argument was simplistic. There were other ways of reducing the risk of heart disease than drinking, Mr Evans said. These included eating food with less cholestrol, jogging, or mild exercise and giving up smoking. Mr Evans said it was “questionable” to recommend alcohol as a health product to increase liproprotein levels. He said anyone who was going to take drugs was going to pay the price for it — social, psychological, physical, or spiritual. Pregnant women taking

two drinks a day would increase the risk of damaging the foetus, he said. “Pregnant women should be encouraged not to drink at all.”

Criticism of Professor Batt’s comments also came from the Palmerston North Hospital Board’s alcohol and drug services co-ordina-tor, Mr John Hannifen.

He said only 9 per cent of New Zealanders consumed 60 per cent of the alcohol drunk and that the four drinks a day motto would encourage many people to raise their level of daily, drinking.