Both culturally and legally alcohol is food. However, as long ago as the 1800s, temperance writers insisted that alcohol was not a food. Instead, they described it as a poison that was dangerous to life and health. That long tradition continues to this day. In fact stigmatizing alcoholic beverages and discouraging their use have actually become U.S. federal policy. But the scientific medical fact is clear: drinking alcohol in moderation is associated with better health and greater longevity than is either abstaining or abusing alcohol. Some critics have suggested that moderate drinkers have lower mortality than abstainers because abstainers include alcoholics who have damaged their health and no longer drink. However, even when abstainers are limited to those who have never consumed alcohol (thus excluding alcoholics), the relationship remains. That is, moderate drinkers have lower mortality than abstainers who have never consumed alcohol. Critics have also suggested that the health benefits of alcohol are not in the substance but in the lifestyle of those who drink in moderation. Perhaps moderate drinkers have a better or more healthful lifestyle than do either abstainers or those who abuse alcohol. However, even when such confounding factors as diet, exercise, socio-economic status and income level are accounted for, moderate drinkers still have a lower overall mortality than either abstainers or heavy drinkers. But which alcoholic beverage is the best choice? Well known medical authority Dr. Dean Edell explains that there are “differences of opinion about whether beer, wine, or liquor offers the quickest route to a longer life. Of ten major studies, one-third found this true for wine, one-third for beer, and one-third for liquor. Most researchers now believe that it is the alcohol in all of them that provides the magic, but they don’t rule out other components of alcoholic beverages.” The bottom line is that abstaining from alcohol is a risk factor associated with poor health and early death.