A Toast to Absurdity: The New Prohibition Disguised as Science – Paganini non Ripete 293
What kind of world would it be without wine or beer? They have been part of our culture for millennia, bringing physical, mental, and social health benefits. Yet, some want to equate them with tobacco, imposing alarming warning labels, taxes, and restrictions. The problem is not consumption but abuse and its causes. Demonizing these products means ignoring science, tradition, and individual freedom. Data contradicts the alarmism: the solution is not prohibition but awareness. Educating on moderation is the only sensible path.
A Toast to Absurdity
WHAT’S HAPPENING The idea that alcoholic beverages should be regulated like tobacco is spreading. Across Europe and the world, proposals are emerging to limit their consumption, claiming that they are among the main causes of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which in turn contribute to high mortality rates and healthcare costs.
- Alarming labels like “seriously harms health” or “causes cancer” on bottles and cans, specific taxes, severe restrictions, and even exclusive sales in authorized stores, as already happens in Finland and Sweden (a clear violation of EU single market rules), are among the proposed solutions, following the classic “one size fits all” logic.
READ IT AGAIN: THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET IS NOT A LIE
WHY IT MATTERS These measures will have serious unintended consequences if implemented, limiting individual freedoms and harming the economy, society, and culture. They are based on a simplistic and unfounded idea: wine and beer are inherently harmful.
- In reality, the issue is not consumption but abuse and its causes.
- Wine and beer can have positive health effects when included in a balanced diet.
However, those promoting these restrictions ignore the complexity of social reality: alcohol abuse has deep, individual, and collective causes that cannot be solved through bans and taxes as preventive tools.
PATERNALISM OR RESPONSIBILITY This paternalistic and illiberal vision seeks to replace individual responsibility with top-down imposition. The state wants to decide what is right for citizens, enforcing restrictions instead of focusing on education and awareness.
The result? More control, less freedom, and no real benefit. Even worse, this oversimplified and dogmatic approach avoids addressing the real causes of abuse, shifting the blame onto millennia-old products instead of social, economic, and cultural conditions that contribute to excessive consumption.
A WORLD WITHOUT WINE AND BEER If wine and beer disappeared from our tables, we would not have a healthier society, but a poorer one in every respect.
- Those who consume them moderately would lose an element with benefits for physical, mental, and social health.
- Those who abuse them would replace them with other substances, equally or even more harmful.
- The economy would take a significant hit: the wine and beer industry is a pillar of many regions, tied to geography, traditions, and culture.
Eliminating wine and beer would mean erasing millennia of history.
MILLENNIA OF TRADITION AND WELL-BEING Wine and beer have been part of human diets for over 6,000 years. The Romans refined viticulture and spread production throughout their empire. Since then, life expectancy has increased, not decreased.
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, recommended wine for disinfecting wounds and as part of a healthy diet. He said, “Wine is a beneficial drink for both the healthy and the ill. It should be consumed at the right time, in the right way, and in the right quantities, considering each individual’s constitution”.
LESS ALCOHOL, MORE ALARMISM Data contradicts the alarmism, yet no one talks about it.
- Since 2010, harmful alcohol consumption and alcohol-related mortality have decreased by 20% globally.
- In the EU, binge drinking dropped by 6.4% between 2014 and 2019.
- Among young people (aged 15-19), episodic excessive drinking fell by 15%.
- Alcohol-attributable deaths in Europe declined by 16.8% between 2010 and 2019.
These figures dismantle the emergency narrative upon which the new restrictions are based.
BALANCE, NOT PROHIBITION As with all foods, the key is moderation. Aristotle considered it a fundamental principle, and it is a cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet.
- The Italian Ministry of Health recommends: one glass per day for women and those over 65, two glasses per day for men.
- The effects of alcohol vary from person to person, depending on diet, metabolism, and health status. Imposing rigid rules without considering this complexity is a mistake.
- Moreover, quality matters: harm does not depend only on quantity but also on the characteristics of the product.
FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY Countering the prohibitionist approach does not mean denying the problems associated with alcohol abuse but addressing them with data, science, and common sense.
- We do not need bans or preventive strategies disguised as information, such as alarmist labels, but knowledge. Only through awareness can we strengthen the true foundation of individual freedom.
WHAT TO DO The solution is to promote a balanced lifestyle. Balance varies from person to person and is achieved through knowledge and awareness, not bans and impositions. Educating citizens on moderation is the only approach that has been proven to produce results.
