You’ve probably heard the reports that moderate drinking
can actually be good for your heart. But before you stock up (囤积) on beer, wine,
or liquor for "medicinal purposes", read the fine print.
Guidelines published by the Department of Health and Human Services define
moderate drinking as no more than a drink a day for most women and no more than
two drinks a day for most men. But even moderate drinking may be ill-advised as
you get older. Research shows that as you age, you absorb
alcohol more readily and are more sensitive to its effects. So the number of
drinks you could tolerate years ago may be too much for you now. Why First,
your body’s ratio of water to fat falls as you age, so there’s less water to
dilute (稀释) the alcohol. Second, you have less blood flow to the liver and less
efficient liver enzyme action, so your body doesn’t metabolize (新陈代谢) alcohol as
readily. Women need to be especially careful, since most can’t
tolerate as much alcohol as men can. One reason is that they are generally
smaller, and smaller people have less blood volume, so a little alcohol goes a
longer way. Women also produce less of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol in
the stomach before it is absorbed into the bloodstream. And they have a higher
proportion of body fat, which does not absorb alcohol. The result Drink for
drink, women have 75% more alcohol in their bloodstream than men do.
Despite the caveats (警告，告诫), there’s no doubt that, for many people,
limited amounts of alcohol can help you live longer and decrease your risk of
heart disease. Those who may be at risk for heart disease or stroke and those
who are diabetic appear to benefit most from moderate alcohol intake (one or two
drinks per day) over the course of their lifetimes. For
example, in a University of Wisconsin study of diabetic men and women with an
average age of 69, the risk of death from coronary heart disease was
significantly lower among moderate drinkers compared to abstainers (戒酒者). The
death rate for those who had a drink a day was less than half of that for those
who didn’t drink at all. The passage tells us that ______.
A. moderate drinking does harm to diabetic patients
B. moderate drinking is most beneficial to healthy people
C. moderate drinking reduce diabetic people’s risks of coronary heart
disease
D. moderate drinking does more good to men than to women