ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STUART AUERBACH WASHINGTON POST
To paraphrase the Persian poet Omar Khayyam:
Many jugs of wine, a flock of chickens and - new labels advertising ``the health benefits of moderate wine consumption.''
That's the smorgasbord offered earlier this month by the Wine Institute as it opened a campaign to persuade Americans to drink wine for good health.
To further promote that idea, California wine growers asked the federal government to allow them to put new labels on bottles pointing buyers to the potential healthful effects of wine consumption.
That label would be in addition to a warning currently pasted on all bottles of alcoholic beverages that cautions against drinking during pregnancy and while driving and ends by stating that drinking wine, beer and spirits ``may cause health problems.''
``The proposed label statement is an attempt to provide more balanced information to the consumer than now exists with the government warning,'' said John De Luca, president of the Wine Institute, a trade association and lobbying organization of California wine growers.
The Wine Institute based its case mainly on the government's new ``Dietary Guidelines for Americans,'' nutrient and food recommendations released jointly by the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year. The guidelines for the first time gave an official imprimatur to the possible healthful effects of drinking moderate amounts of wine, but recommended it be taken with a meal. ``Moderate'' is defined as one five-ounce glass a day for women, two for men.
The previous guidelines, issued in 1990, said ``drinking has no net health benefit.''
The Wine Institute fought hard for the change, submitting more than 100 scientific studies to the committee considering the new dietary guidelines.
``In my personal view, wine with meals in moderation is beneficial. There was a significant bias in the past against drinking. To move from anti-alcohol to health benefits is a big change,'' said Philip Lee, assistant secretary for health of the Department of Health and Human Services, when the new guidelines were announced.
Researchers began exploring the possible health benefits of wine after noticing a remarkably low death rate in France from coronary heart disease despite a diet that commonly contained high amounts of saturated fat. The studies found that French men have half the rate of heart attacks of American men.
Eventually, research on this ``French paradox'' centered on the consumption of wine. Studies in the United States also have shown that moderate drinking of alcohol lowers a person's risk of coronary heart disease.
Some researchers argue that only wine - and not other types of alcohol - may have this advantage because wine contains components called phenolic compounds, said Bruce German of the University of California at Davis. Early laboratory research suggests these compounds may help prevent plaque from forming in arteries.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States disputed that wine is the only alcoholic beverage that is good for you. In a press release it touted a recent study published in the British Medical Journal by researchers from Harvard University's School of Public Health, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center and Erasmus Medical School in the Netherlands that concluded that moderate consumption of any alcoholic beverage - beer, wine or spirits - is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
``A substantial portion of the benefit is from the alcohol rather than other components of each type of drink,'' the researchers said.
De Luca called the new federal dietary guidelines, issued in January, ``an educational tool that more evenly treats'' the differences between use and abuse of alcohol. The Wine Institute has criticized the current warning label, saying it fails to distinguish ``between the use and abuse of beverages which contain alcohol and does not reflect current scientific knowledge about the potential health benefits of moderate consumption.''
De Luca presented his petition Monday to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which among other tasks regulates labeling of alcoholic beverages.
The new label, which wine producers could use or not as they see fit, would not directly tout wine for its medicinal purposes. Instead it would advise consumers to write to the government for the dietary guidelines ``to learn the health benefits of moderate wine consumption.''
Michael Jacobson, executive director of the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest, immediately attacked the new label as ``misleading'' and said ``it would be a terrible disservice to the public to approve the label notice they are asking for.''
While acknowledging the possibility of ``some benefits'' from moderate wine consumption, Jacobson noted the federal dietary guidelines ``devote far more attention to the risks associated with alcohol than any benefits.''
Patti Munter, president and founder of the National Organization for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a constellation of birth defects including mental retardation caused by alcohol abuse, said she has no problem with saying red wine has possible benefits in preventing heart disease as long as it remains clear that drinking is bad for women who are pregnant or who are trying to get pregnant.
In addition to the widely reported links to heart disease, the California winegrowers in their petition to the ATF cited a recent study in the British Medical Journal that found wine killed germs associated with travelers' diarrhea in a test tube faster and better that bismuth salicylate, the principle ingredient of Pepto Bismol, a commonly used over-the-counter remedy. It also quoted from studies showing wine offers protection against the hepatitis A virus in contaminated oysters, reduces kidney-stone formation and lowers the risk of gallbladder disease.
Only one or two glasses of wine will do the trick. ``You don't have to drink to excess to get the beneficial effects,`` said Martin Weise of West Virginia University's School of Medicine.
AP-NY-05-07-96 1352E
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