{"id":15700,"date":"2026-03-08T09:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=15700"},"modified":"2026-03-08T04:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:49:33","slug":"ny-times-continues-its-attack-on-alcoholic-beverages-yawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=15700","title":{"rendered":"NY Times continues it&#8217;s attack on alcoholic beverages! Yawn&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We all get it &#8211; drinking too much is bad, very bad, for you. But just getting tired of the NYT preachyness on this&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"208\" height=\"148\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cocktail-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15701\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/12\/well\/alcohol-body-health-effects.html?campaign_id=190&amp;emc=edit_ufn_20260307&amp;instance_id=172123&amp;nl=from-the-times&amp;regi_id=87616590&amp;segment_id=216276&amp;user_id=1c634a87d1656cc79c8753416632bbac\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/12\/well\/alcohol-body-health-effects.html?campaign_id=190&amp;emc=edit_ufn_20260307&amp;instance_id=172123&amp;nl=from-the-times&amp;regi_id=87616590&amp;segment_id=216276&amp;user_id=1c634a87d1656cc79c8753416632bbac\">What Alcohol Does to the Body<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dry January has come and gone, but Americans\u2019 relationship with drinking is undergoing a more lasting change. According to one recent poll, just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/13\/well\/us-alcohol-drinking-low-poll.html\">54 percent of U.S. adults<\/a> said they consume alcohol, the smallest percentage in nearly 90 years of data collection. That may be because more people are taking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/01\/13\/well\/mind\/alcohol-health-effects.html\">alcohol\u2019s negative health consequences<\/a> seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drinking alcohol can have profound effects on the brain and body. In the moment, some of those effects can be pleasurable. But in the long term, especially when it\u2019s consumed in large quantities, alcohol can cause serious health harms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>on the one hand &#8211; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alcohol has a rapid effect in the brain, causing people to feel more relaxed and sociable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>on the other hand <\/em>&#8211; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the long term, alcohol use is associated with changes in brain structure. Some studies have found that middle-aged and older adults <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamaneurology\/fullarticle\/796278\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">who average even one drink a day<\/a> tend to have <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC8897479\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slightly less brain volume<\/a> than people who don\u2019t drink. And the more alcohol someone consumes, the more the brain shrinks. Experts don\u2019t know exactly why that is, but one theory is that alcohol alters the brain\u2019s immune system, ramping up inflammation, which can damage neurons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>And of course there&#8217;s much more &#8211; just hit the<\/em>  <em>link above,<\/em> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/12\/well\/alcohol-body-health-effects.html?campaign_id=190&amp;emc=edit_ufn_20260307&amp;instance_id=172123&amp;nl=from-the-times&amp;regi_id=87616590&amp;segment_id=216276&amp;user_id=1c634a87d1656cc79c8753416632bbac\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/12\/well\/alcohol-body-health-effects.html?campaign_id=190&amp;emc=edit_ufn_20260307&amp;instance_id=172123&amp;nl=from-the-times&amp;regi_id=87616590&amp;segment_id=216276&amp;user_id=1c634a87d1656cc79c8753416632bbac\">right here<\/a>  &#8211; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drinking alcohol increases the risk of four types of cancer in the mouth and upper digestive tract: oral, pharyngeal (throat), laryngeal (voice box) and esophageal. The mouth, throat and esophagus are particularly vulnerable since those tissues have some of the greatest exposure to acetaldehyde. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC4453639\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one analysis<\/a>, the risk of mouth and throat cancers increases by 13 percent and the risk of esophageal cancer by 26 percent with just one drink per day. For people who have five or more drinks a day, the risk of all three cancers is roughly four times higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"223\" height=\"148\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/beer-image-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15702\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all get it &#8211; drinking too much is bad, very bad, for you. But just getting tired of the NYT preachyness on this&#8230; What Alcohol Does to the Body Dry January has come and gone, but Americans\u2019 relationship with drinking is undergoing a more lasting change. According to one recent poll, just 54 percent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cocktails","category-silly-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15703,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions\/15703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}