# What is the "healthiest" alcohol? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094 "2008-01-11T05:33:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/1 "2008-01-11T05:33:55Z")
Perhaps a GQ, but we’ll start off here. Every so often, I’ll see an article about the “world’s oldest person”. Inevitably, it will be a 105-year old Russian who drinks vodka every day. (Not really, but you know what I mean.) Red wine has phenolic constituents that might be good for you. People have told me that beer has vitamins. Is one form of alcohol ingestion “better for you” than another? Or is it better to abstain entirely? ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/2 "2008-01-11T05:44:04Z")
Ethanol. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/3 "2008-01-11T05:46:23Z")
Purely anecdotal, but I’ve heard more health benefits about wine than any other alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/4 "2008-01-11T05:52:36Z")
I’ve always heard but cannot confirm that the clear liquors (vodka, gin, white rum) are much easier on one’s body than the dark liquors (all whiskies, amber and dark rums). Something to do with the tannins that make liquor dark. No idea about beers and wines though. Of course, the healthiest way to imbibe any alcoholic beverage is in moderation. I don’t know if one should abstain entirely; but certainly, moderation can’t be a bad thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/5 "2008-01-11T11:03:55Z")
Moderation in everything, _especially_ moderation! I’m not sure about which alcohol is “healthiest”, but I know that the darker the drink the worse the hangover will be. From personal experience, I survive a night out drinking vodka much better than a night out drinking beer. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/6 "2008-01-11T20:31:30Z")
[QUOTE=ScareyFaerie] Moderation in everything, _especially_ moderation! [/QUOTE] Right. I only have the _occasional_ bout of moderation. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/7 "2008-01-11T22:07:05Z")
For a diabetic, the strong drinks of whiskey, vodka, scotch etc. can lower blood sugar levels while wines, beers, coolers, can raise the level. For me the risk of lowering the blood sugar level is better than the risk of raising it. I know, I know, don’t drink at all. Pffft. ---
**Author:** ![Pixilated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aeb1de/32.png) [@Pixilated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixilated)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/8 "2008-01-11T22:30:47Z")
Here is a great article incl breakdown: [Alcohol & Health](http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/AlcoholAndHealth.html) My SO’s mother has a prescription to drink wine for medicinal purposes. My SO is a moderate drinker and is RARELY ill/under the weather. (just ask Projammer) If I’m not mistaken, I believe some of the dark beers (such as Guinness) provided many nutrients to its drinkers. But i’m sure that was before all the preservatives and such were added. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/9 "2008-01-11T22:33:55Z")
[QUOTE=Pixilated] My SO’s mother has a prescription to drink wine for medicinal purposes. [/QUOTE] If it’s covered by her insurance plan, you have the luckiest mom ever. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/10 "2008-01-11T22:42:09Z")
As for the OP, I remember hearing, word-of-mouth, about a case in Washington State during the 90s. A brewery–I think it was Bert Grant, but I’m not sure (it may have been Thomas Kemper, back when they made beer)–decided to put nutrition information on their beer, since its levels of B12 were out the wazoo (B12 occurs naturally in brewer’s yeast, and they, unlike a lot of brewers, didn’t filter the dead yeast out). Supposedly the BATF retaliated by threatening to tax their hard cider as a wine instead of as a beer, a move that would have priced them out of the market; the BATF backed down when Bert Grant agreed to remove the nutrition label. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Jimson\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@Jimson\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimson_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-healthiest-alcohol/433094/11 "2008-01-12T18:43:57Z")
I seem to recall the British doing studies on gin and finding that shaken martinis have a good amount of antioxidants. Only the British but of course I still use this in my argument that gin is medicinal.