Do-gooder WHO has an intemperate approach to temperance
World Health Organisation suspends its commitment to science in favour of a prohibitionist agenda
The announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in January 2023 that no amount of alcohol — however small — was safe to consume came as a shock to many experts in the field. For almost a century, Prof Raymond Pearl’s famous J-curve graph showed that moderate wine consumption was actually good for you. In the 1980s the “French Paradox” went so far as to suggest that, although the French had diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol, they had lower rates of cardiovascular disease than Americans because they drank wine at meals.
On closer examination, the WHO’s announcement was based primarily on a 2023 meta-study produced by, among others, Drs Tim Stockwell and Timothy Naimi — both of whom, it turns out, are affiliated to the temperance/prohibition lobby. Though this claim was immediately challenged by researchers who pointed out that the study used “an overly broad definition of moderate alcohol intake” the imprimatur of the WHO has lent it considerable credibility....
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