Professor defends N.Z. drinking habits

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 27

Professor defends N.Z. drinking habits

Auckland Contrary to popular medical opinions, most heavy drinkers do not get ill, according the controversial bio-chemist, Professor Richard Batt Also, drinking in the evening was an important part of modern society, said Professor Batt, who earlier this year caused an uproar in medical circles for suggesting that two to four drinks a day would keep coronaryheart attacks at bay. Professor Batt said that most brain damage problems usually associated with heavy drinking were not a result of the alcohol, but vitamin deficiencies caused by bad eating habits. Alcohol “certainly knocks the appetite about,” but

New Zealanders were good eaters and even if they became heavy drinkers would still probably fit in at least one large daily meal, he said. Only a small percentage of people suffered brain or liver damage from alcohol and people would have to drink more than the equivalent of a third of a bottle of gin a day before damaging their health, he said. About 80 per cent of the drinking population had no problems with alcohol, which had become an important “prop" in society. “There has been an ’ increase in work activities and if people do not go home and have a couple of drinks they end up taking their problems with them,” Professor Batt said.

A Canadian study which showed that two to six drinks a day were associated with lower death rates had gone down “pretty well" in Australia, he saidj “But over here there are some people who want that information suppressed. They want to deprive 80 per cent of the population for the 20 per cent that abuse alcohol." Professor Batt, who is the director of the Medical Research Council's aclohol research programme, said that doctors, instead of talking about the problems of alcohol on physical health, should look ’ more into alcohol causing marriage break-ups and crimes.