Leave alcohol ‘benefits’ out of health policy – expert

[Malaikah]

Leave alcohol ‘benefits’ out of health policy – expert
[ UniNews Vol. 15, No. 9 29 May - 12 June 2006 ]

By Matthew Johnston

The supposed health benefits of alcohol are under fire and should not be factored into public health policy, according to the University of Melbourne’s inaugural Professor of Social Alcohol Research.

Professor Robin Room says it is often wrongly assumed that the benefits to the heart of a few glasses of wine balance the harms.

“Recent studies have questioned some of these benefits, and from population studies it is clear that any benefit for some hearts, from a rise in consumption, is matched by adverse effects for other hearts.

“Public policy about alcohol therefore needs to focus on reducing the social and health harms from alcohol.”

Professor Room, of the University’s School of Population Health and Director of the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, issued the warning at the University recently in a public lecture on measuring the costs of alcohol.

Professor Room was previously Director of the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University. He is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Expert Advisory Panel on drugs and alcohol and is advising the WHO as it prepares a new program to tackle alcohol problems on a global basis.

Professor Room believes that when measuring effects of drinking, any benefits derived from alcohol – which are often difficult to gauge – should be looked at separately from the social, health and financial costs.

He also noted that although many people don’t like to think of alcohol as a drug, it causes more harm than all illicit drugs combined.

Professor Room wants more studies to esti-mate the costs and burden of alcohol and to address the issue of ‘second-hand drinking’ in a similar way to passive smoking.

“The social harm from alcohol is not well measured. For example we don’t have good data on how much alcohol affects productivity, from for instance, hangovers at work.

“Many of the family costs are often hidden. You might be able to estimate the welfare costs but what about the social repercussions from living with an alcohol dependent person, or the problems children may face later in life?”

Source

[Skillganon]

They make excuses to drink alcohol. To justify it's benefit in oppose to it's harm.

Most of my lecturers, who quote that couple of glasses of wine is good for the hard, are drunkard, (not all the time, atleast during lecture they are sober) but outside they make fool of themself by getting pissed.

[Looking4Peace]

Wine has its benefits but its harms at the same time, while it may cut some fat while a meal is eaten, did you know most wine contains sulfites and nitrates, the same cancer causing ingrediants in hot dogs, but even more concentrated. In reality wine is probably more unhealthy then beer considering all the free radicals it must cause.

[Skillganon]

Hope you don't use that as an excuse, for as muslim it is forbidden totally to drink it. Period. Does who take the advice not only disobeys but usually or sometime end up drunk and commiting sin's.

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[*noor]

did you know most wine contains sulfites and nitrates, the same cancer causing ingrediants in hot dogs, but even more concentrated. .

hot dogs contain cancer causing ingredients?......omg.........i just had a hot dog yesterday!!!

[Looking4Peace]

calm down hotdogs contain some nitrates, ever read the label and it says sodium nitrate, thats nitrates, but wine has about 10 times more, actually sulfites which are worse. I eat them too on occassion.

[Looking4Peace]

Hope you don't use that as an excuse, for as muslim it is forbidden totally to drink it. Period. Does who take the advice not only disobeys but usually or sometime end up drunk and commiting sin's.

who is using what as an excuse? i was simply stating that wine is unhealthy more so then it is healthy, should i write it over in a better way to suit you? dont get too carried away with the preaching chief.

[Skillganon]

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! How could you eat a food that is named after dog!!! Disgusting.

I perfer shish Kebab!

[*noor]

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! How could you eat a food that is named after dog!!! Disgusting.

I perfer shish Kebab!

i love shish kebab too, but my friends and i went to Manhattan yesterday and we needed something quick so we just got hot dogs.

[Skillganon]

i love shish kebab too, but my friends and i went to Manhattan yesterday and we needed something quick so we just got hot dogs.

What are hot dog made out of? Hope it was vegetable, I won't trust it if it was meat!!!

[*noor]

What are hot dog made out of? Hope it was vegetable, I won't trust it if it was meat!!!

it was beef
dont worry LOL
i know several places in Manhattan where i can get a halal hot dog.........if you go to New York, you can find whatever you need mashaAllah.........thats why i love it here so much.

[Skillganon]

it was beef
dont worry LOL
i know several places in Manhattan where i can get a halal hot dog.........if you go to New York, you can find whatever you need mashaAllah.........thats why i love it here so much.

I don't trust it, unless is a muslim brother or sister.

You can't be sure, they can put a sign up saying HALAL! Also places where they sell haram with halal hot food is a bad place to go to eat.

[Woodrow]

Some interesting things about alcohol. It is one of the worlds oldest discoveries. There is evidence that it was pobably made before the concept of baked bread came about.

The point of that, Alcohol was well know and its value of good and bad were well established by the time of Mohammad(pbuh). It is interesting that there was no massive outrage about the forbiddance of alcohol in the Qur'an.

To me that is a verification of the truth of the Qur'an, the fact that it absolutly prohibited something that was an established part of the people's lives. To me it seems that if the people of the time did not see absolute proof of the Qur'an when it was presented, that would have been an immediate arguement to question the truth. at that time it would be very similar to telling people they are not to drink water. With out a very strong proof that it was Allah's word, the Qur'an would have been discarded immediatly as a false teaching.

[*noor]

I don't trust it, unless is a muslim brother or sister.

You can't be sure, they can put a sign up saying HALAL! Also places where they sell haram with halal hot food is a bad place to go to eat.

well duh!!
there aren't any non Muslims that sell halaal foods anyways.......well not that i know of anyways............and dont worry whenever i go shopping in Manhattan and want a hot dog, i buy from Muslim vendors who sell halaal hot dogs and no Muslim hot dog vendor that i know of also sells haraam hot dogs or other foods.

[Looking4Peace]

I hate to burst your buble but i live in nyc too and there have been major crackdowns on halal vendors and store owners for being caught selling haram, meat your run of the mill stank gross slaughter house animal by- product fed meat. In some ways better off buying organic (as long as it slaughtered humanly by a christian or jew) which i know of a few brands that i buy that are ok and if you are going to buy halal better do ur research on where it is from. New york is known for its halal frauds.

[*noor]

I hate to burst your buble but i live in nyc too and there have been major crackdowns on halal vendors and store owners for being caught selling haram, meat your run of the mill stank gross slaughter house animal by- product fed meat. In some ways better off buying organic (as long as it slaughtered humanly by a christian or jew) which i know of a few brands that i buy that are ok and if you are going to buy halal better do ur research on where it is from. New york is known for its halal frauds.

ok.........now you're scaring me................r u serious??............so do you know any hot dog vendors in Manhattan that are halaal without any doubt???

[Looking4Peace]

No, im such a skeptic and have been skieved out by conventional meat for so long even before i was muslim that i have been buying halal, organic and kosher meets for years, i dont eat things such as hotdogs outside, when im out i eat meatless items. But i know of one example of a guy posing regular hotdogs off as halal, it was a hotdog stand right near the staten island ferry on the manhatten side and a cop noticed he was taking sabret hodogs (Not halal) out of its package, thought noone would notice cause not many people were around, the cop turned out to be muslim, so you can guess the rest of the story. The cop was the brother of a friend of mine. years ago but just showing people cannot be trusted.

[Looking4Peace]

No, im such a skeptic and have been skieved out by conventional meat for so long even before i was muslim that i have been buying halal, organic and kosher meets for years, i dont eat things such as hotdogs outside, when im out i eat meatless items. But i know of one example of a guy posing regular hotdogs off as halal, it was a hotdog stand right near the staten island ferry on the manhatten side and a cop noticed he was taking sabret hodogs (Not halal) out of its package, thought noone would notice cause not many people were around, the cop turned out to be muslim, so you can guess the rest of the story. The cop was the brother of a friend of mine. years ago but just showing people cannot be trusted.

[Woodrow]

Lol, I was never faced with that problem since I reverted. I had become a vegitarian years before I reverted. Namely because I am scared of farm raised meat. I live in cattle country and I know what them critters are fed.

Since I reverted I do occasionaly eat some Halal meats. Nothing processsed and from a genuine known Islamic source.

[Looking4Peace]

you cannot call yourself a vegetarian if you eat meat once in a while haha thats funny of you

and the meat i get is vegetarian fed only whether its a halal or organic, believe me i didnt do years of researching until it killed me for nothing, i like meat too much to go vegetarian, i eat a good balance of both plant and animals:giggling:

[*noor]

omg........thanx for that sister.........this is like the second hot dog i had this year that was supposedly halaal..........but you're right........you never know if its really halaal or not....

i dont think we can have kosher meats.........is it permissable??

[Looking4Peace]

yes im pretty sure but as the same with halal u have to make sure its not bogus.
check you private message i dont want to on anymore in this thread since we are way off topic

[Woodrow]

you cannot call yourself a vegetarian if you eat meat once in a while haha thats funny of you

and the meat i get is vegetarian fed only whether its a halal or organic, believe me i didnt do years of researching until it killed me for nothing, i like meat too much to go vegetarian, i eat a good balance of both plant and animals:giggling:

LOL I should have clarified that I am no longer a vegitarian since I reverted, as I now occasionaly eat Halal meat. However I was a vegetarian for many years prior to reverting. But, my reason for being a vegan was because I lost trust in the foods sold in the store, and at that time had never even heard of a Halal market.

[Looking4Peace]

awww you live in texas, is there even halal there? Do people bother you?

[Woodrow]

awww you live in texas, is there even halal there? Do people bother you?

I'm in Austin. the City is very progressive and very tolerant of all faiths. There are 2 local Halal markets that I know off. Both purchase localy raised meat, raised on Muslim farms. The Local Imams do the actual slaughtering, Meat is not available everyday of the week for that reason.

Austin is not that big of a city, Based on percentages we make up a fair share of the population. One funny thing here is many of the Muslims here are originaly from Pakistan and they often get mistaken as being Mexican.

I have lived in other parts of Texas, but I was not Muslim at that time. Most of the Muslims in Texas seem to be in the larger Cities such as Houston and Dallas. There has been some periodic problems in Dallas. Then again just about every minority group has had problems there.

There is a good sized Muslim population in Tyler Texas. The only problem they seem to have there, is one of the local churches keeps putting up Billboards that say "Allah is not God"

Nope getting Halaal food is no problem in the Austin area, and the people are very tolerant. There were some brief problems shortly after 9/11 and some people still have some misconceptions. My daughter wears the Hijab and quite often people will stop her and ask her if her Husband beats her.

She was Muslim before she met her Husband.

[Skillganon]

I'm in Austin. the City is very progressive and very tolerant of all faiths. There are 2 local Halal markets that I know off. Both purchase localy raised meat, raised on Muslim farms. The Local Imams do the actual slaughtering, Meat is not available everyday of the week for that reason.

Marshallah. I think there should be more people trained at slaughtering in the ISLAMIC way, so their would be more halal food available.

When I am outside I am mostly vegeterian, (especially in school canteen, even though they sell halal food sometime) unless I know the place and the people.

I have lived in other parts of Texas, but I was not Muslim at that time. Most of the Muslims in Texas seem to be in the larger Cities such as Houston and Dallas. There has been some periodic problems in Dallas. Then again just about every minority group has had problems there.

True, even here in england. Where I live (MILLWALL area in LONDON) we use to have problems with BNP (skinheads), but now they have died down or relocated.

There is a good sized Muslim population in Tyler Texas. The only problem they seem to have there, is one of the local churches keeps putting up Billboards that say "Allah is not God"

That is a bit of a negation is it not? Unless if it is the word "god" (small "g")

Nope getting Halaal food is no problem in the Austin area, and the people are very tolerant. There were some brief problems shortly after 9/11 and some people still have some misconceptions. My daughter wears the Hijab and quite often people will stop her and ask her if her Husband beats her.

She was Muslim before she met her Husband.

MArshallah, may Allah alway's guide her and keep her away from harm's way.

[catmando]

I used to be a heavy drinker. After much introspection, I found that alcohol made me a very melancholy man, difficult to talk to, spoiling for arguments and fights.

I still drink, but very seldom. Mostly red and white wine with evening dinner. I like myself much better now. :)