喝适量红酒对身体有许多健康益处，但对女性预防乳腺癌而言，红酒是有害物质。

　　这项研究的第一作者波利.纽科姆9日说，以前一些研究曾显示，红酒有助预防心脏病和前列腺癌等，但现在她领导的研究小组发现，红酒并不能帮助预防乳腺癌。

　　纽科姆在一份声明中说：“我们发现，红酒与白酒一样会增加女性乳腺癌风险，两者在这方面没有区别。”

　　研究人员共调查了6300多名患乳腺癌的女性和7500多名健康女性的饮酒习惯。他们得出的结论是，女性如果每周饮酒超过14杯，不论她们饮用的是红酒、白酒还是啤酒，罹患乳腺癌的几率比不饮酒者增加24%。研究人员因此建议，女性饮酒一定要适量，每天不要超过一杯。

　　We had been pretty smug about drinking a glass of red wine with dinner. It certainly helps to relieve stress and, some studies suggest, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and might extend life spans.

　　So we were dismayed when epidemiologists at Oxford University recently concluded that women who drink even a moderate amount of alcohol — fewer than three drinks a day — increase their risk of contracting several cancers compared with women who drink no more than two drinks a week.

　　The researchers studied almost 1.3 million middle-aged women who attended breast cancer screening clinics in Britain and were tracked for an average of seven years. Women who reported drinking moderate amounts of alcohol suffered an increased risk of cancers of the breast, liver, rectum and, among current smokers, the upper aero-digestive tract. Each additional drink increased the risk, and it did not matter whether the alcohol was red or white wine, beer or hard liquor.

　　Not all of their conclusions were that grim. The study found that moderate drinking decreased the risk of thyroid cancer, renal cell cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. More confusingly, it showed that women who weren’t drinking at all when the research started actually had a higher rate of cancer than women who drank up to six drinks a week.

　　That hardly proves that moderate drinking cuts the risk of cancer, but it sure muddies the water. No one has yet determined whether any potential cancer risks from moderate drinking outweigh the possible, though disputed, health gains from a glass of red wine. When the final tally of risks and benefits is in, let us hope there is room for women to have a convivial drink with friends or a romantic dinner with wine.