A DOCTOR’S CERTIFICATE TO INDICATE THE LEVEL OF WINE CONSUMPTION TOLERANCE: COLDIRETTI LAUNCHED THE IDEA AND DOCTORS HAVE “ENDORSED” IT

A doctor’s certificate indicating the level of individual tolerability to the consumption of wine is the idea that the Piedmont section of Coldiretti (the association of Italian farmers) launched today. Coldiretti considers the Breathalyer test limit, now set by law at 0.5 grams per liter, unfair. The agricultural world is upset by the “criminalization of wine” and worried by the drop in consumption due to the “alcohol test syndrome”, which has already reached levels of 10-15% less consumption in restaurants.

And, in view of the upcoming Christmas holidays Coldiretti in Piedmont, one of the Italian regions with higher quality wine production, is launching its campaign for “a different system of parameters and checks” of road controls.

In support of their viewpoint that wine is “unjustifiably and superficially accused” Coldiretti relies on the advice of doctors, like Mario Del Piano, director of the Department of Gastroentorologia at the Ospedale Maggiore of Novara. “People caught with a level of alcohol at 0.5 are not always drunk,” he says, “quite the contrary. Many people with that level of alcohol remain sober because they are accustomed to drinking wine due to family traditions and their cultural heritage. Their bodies produce an enzyme capable of tolerating twice as much wine as others”. The doctor at the Novara hospital suggests modifying the evaluation criteria and “creating, in hospitals and local health clinics, groups of experts to assess the capacity of individual resistance to wine without losing control and clarity”.

“The real enemies of security,” says Piano, “are hard liquor and the problem of the 800.000 young people under 16 years old who drink wine and hard liquor. As for wine adults who drink, we must stress its healthy features: anti-tumor properties and antioxidants. Provided, of course,” said the gastroenterologist, “they drink good quality wine, preferably red, and always drink in moderation”.