{Wine, It's What's for Dinner, Part I}

We Americans entertain some asinine attitudes about alcohol. We tend to lump all the various kinds of intoxicating drink together. Booze is booze is booze is booze.

However, notwithstanding fancy diagrams that show a shot of booze equals a glass of beer equals a glass of wine, all alcoholic drinks are not created equal. Sure, for the above size comparisons, the alcoholic content may be the same, but beyond the laboratory, in the places where booze is actually consumed by real human beings, the differences pile up.

To begin with, our bodies do not comprehend several shots of tequila cranked at the bar in quite the same way as several glasses of wine consumed gradually over the course of dinner.

More than any other alcoholic drink, wine is meant to be drunk with meals. And when enjoyed this way, it delivers to the liver a measured, workable, gentle dose of alcohol. By comparison, several drinks pounded down without the ameliorating effect of food brings an iron fist smashing down upon that sensitive organ.

A healthy habit of wine with dinner serves us well: the alcohol and phenolic compounds get together to do a bit of house cleaning for the arteries, thinning the blood while sweeping out bad cholesterol and fatty deposits that stick to and damage the arteries. But the positive effects of alcohol on the blood last only a short time.

And that may be the best news of all. Because sticky blood platelets need to be flushed regularly, a regular (as in daily) dose of alcohol is the healthiest, most beneficial way to drink.