The evidence definitely seems to be converging on non-drinking as less healthy than light or moderate drinking.
My question is, why does alcohol have these health benefits? Some earlier work pointed to resveratrol in wine, but there is a lot of doubt that's been cast on that hypothesis and the general benefits of alcohol seem to be agnostic regarding the particular form of beverage.
A whole pile of the studies are observational and not placebo-controlled, nor randomized.
Therefore, other factors beyond the consumption itself can't be ruled out, such as differences in education, religious beliefs, non-religious beliefs, open-mindedness, etc.
Trying to answer the question of why alcohol clinically has the effects that it does is a hard battle. The molecule has wide-ranging effects, it doesn't by any means hit any particular receptor. It goes wherever water goes in the body and disrupts every cell membrane in the body, among other effects.
And that's if the health benefits have anything to do with the clinical effects at all.
My question is, why does alcohol have these health benefits? Some earlier work pointed to resveratrol in wine, but there is a lot of doubt that's been cast on that hypothesis and the general benefits of alcohol seem to be agnostic regarding the particular form of beverage.