Beer : Health and Nutrition

156 Chapter Seven
interesting to see whether any such genotypic foundation for alcohol abuse is also the
causal factor in determining other compulsive phenotypes.
It is unavoidably the case that sustained and excessive consumption of alcoholic
beverages is damaging to the body. However, the diseases generally associated by the
general populace with alcohol are not suffered by the greatest number of people who
drink moderately. Diseases such as cirrhosis are developed by those who take alcoholic
drinks in relatively huge amounts.
Indeed we see that a beer intake of the order of 2 pints per day has, on balance, a bene
cial impact on the body, particularly in lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Yet despite the growing evidence, it is still a message that sits uncomfortably at the
highest levels. Thus in March 2003 the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of
the US Department of the Treasury issued its nal rule on ‘Health Claims and other
Health-related Statements in the Labelling and Advertising of Alcohol Beverages’. The
particular concern is with the marketing of alcoholic drinks from a health perspective.
It should be realised by the reader that brewers have tended not to do this overtly since
the days of generalised advertisements of the Guinness and Mackeson variety. I have
detected no tendency within beer companies to shift overtly from this stance, unlike
the case for certain other types of alcoholic beverage. Indeed the Tax and Trade Bureau
(TTB) document (which runs to 142 pages) says:
TTB recognises that based on the administrative record, it does not appear that
distillers and brewers are interested in using health claims or health-related statements
in the labelling or advertising of alcohol beverages.
If we study the TTB document we nd statements such as this:
In view of the undisputed health risks associated with alcohol consumption, we
and our predecessors have always taken the position that statements attributing
positive effects on health to the consumption of alcohol beverages are misleading
unless such statements are appropriately quali ed and properly balanced.
This one sentence suggests that the writers have set out their stall with an unquestioning
acceptance of the negatives associated with alcohol but an inherent suspicion of those
who suggest that there may be positives.
They go on to say that:
TTB view statements that make substantive claims regarding health bene ts associated
with alcohol beverage consumption (e.g. ‘moderate alcohol consumption
is good for your health’) as making curative or therapeutic claims. Claims that
set forth only a partial picture or representation might be as likely to mislead the