l to recognize that the FDA has a strong governmental interest in protecting the health of the public. The FTC approach allows too much freedom to food manufacturers and does not adequately protect the public. The current FDA approach is more effective. This approach should be expanded to incorporate wine and alcoholic beverages. The FDA has the experience and the scientific means to evaluate the health claims of wine that other agencies do not have. Before the FDA’s control over wine labels can be further explored it is necessary to understand why health claims on wine labels are now an important concern. This can be done by evaluating the current research on the health effects of wine and other alcoholic beverages.
C. Current Research: The Health Effects of Wine
The internet is full of information on the health benefits of wine and other alcoholic beverages. Some of the information represents scholarly research that has been done by scientists and experts in the field. Other information is disseminated by alcohol producers and other interest groups. What one can take away from almost all of these sources is that there is a U-shaped or J-shaped curve that represents the effects of alcohol consumption. In other words, moderate or light consumption of alcohol may be beneficial while heavier consumption can have extreme negative health consequences. Over the last ten years there has been significant research done on the positive health benefits of wine consumption. This research has changed the position of the alcoholic beverage industry on health effects on labels. Now that there may be a way for the industry to use health effects statements on labels to increase sales the ATF is being asked to reconsider the issue. It is important to examine the research that has been done in order to analyze the possibility of health effects statements on labels of wine and other alcoholic beverages.
In 1992, the Normative Aging Study reported on the U-shaped curve of alcohol consumption and mortality. This prospective study examined the death rates from coronary heart disease. In 1973, 1823 men completed a drinking questionnaire. After twelve years 159 men died, 74 from coronary heart disease. The results showed that moderate drinkers have lower death rates then both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers. In 1997, the New England Journal of Medicine published another prospective study that began in 1982 with 490,000 men and women. The Cancer Prevention Study II was made up of approximately 250,000 women and 238,000 men. The participants were followed for nine years and 46,000 deaths resulted. The conclusion was that in middle-aged and elderly populations, moderate alcohol consumption slightly reduced overall mortality, this benefit depended on a number of other risk factors. As expected the death rate was significantly higher for those participants who reported at least four drinks daily. The causes of death included cirrhosis, alcohol related cancers, and external causes, such as accidents and suicide for men only. The death rates from all cardiovascular disease was thirty to forty percent lower among both men and women who reported one drink daily. The largest reduction in mortality rate from coronary heart disease was among those moderate drinkers who reported pre-existing heart disease or other risk of cardiovascular disease. This article generated an editorial in the same issue titled the Hazards and Benefits of Alcohol . The author of the editorial characterized alcohol inter alia as a “drug that contributes extensively to illness, violence, to social disorder, and mortality.” The article focuses on the issues that the research does not answer such as whether those who have a high risk for cardiovascular disease might be even better off with diet and exercise, whether the non-drinkers reformed alcoholics, and whether the participants were honest about their alcohol consumption. The editorial ends with the comment the alcohol industry is the only group to actually call for increased consumption.
Preliminary research focused on health ef