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A technical expert tastes the distillate, the "eau de vie", during a double distillation process in the distillery of Courvoisier cognac house in Cognac, southwestern France, February 11, 2015. A decline in French wines and spirits exports worsened last year as China's clampdown on extravagant spending capped demand for pricy cognacs and Bordeaux wines. Shipments of French wines and spirits abroad fell 2.8 percent to 10.8 billion euros in 2014, hurt by a 17.4 percent fall in sales to China, the sector's federation FEVS (the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters) said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

A new study debunks previous theories that suggest moderate consumption of alcohol may actually be good for health.

How many of you have picked up a glass of alcohol over the weekend and thought “It’s ok to have a drink as studies suggest moderate drinking doesn’t do any harm?” If you’re one such person, you may want to think again. Though many studies have touted the health benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol, a new study debunks all such theories.

The study was conducted by the researchers from University College London with 35,000 British as respondents. After influencing factors such as personal, social, economic and lifestyle factors were accounted for, researchers noted that the study participants showed little to no health benefits when they consumed alcohol in moderate amounts.

“Based on the findings from this study, alcohol consumption appears to confer little to no protection against mortality [death] in most age-sex groups,” said study author Craig Knott, a research associate in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, according to a Health.com report.

The study questions findings of earlier studies which suggest that drinking alcoholic beverages in moderate amounts may lead to some degree of protection against early death and illness, with people who have fewer than two drinks per day living longer than both those who drink more and those who don’t drink at all.

Such studies were found to be flawed because they included light drinks with those who didn’t touch a drop of alcohol in their entire life.

“Importantly, former drinkers appear to be less healthy and at greater risk of mortality than never drinkers,” he said. “With existing research having largely grouped former and never drinkers together, there was the possibility that protective effects seen among lighter drinkers may be less a consequence of a real biological relationship and more a statistical artefact arising from their comparison against people who are simply less healthy.”

Professor Mike Daube of Curtin University in Australia noted that there are a number of conclusions that should be drawn from this research. He said that health officials should discourage findings that suggest alcohol usage can bring about any health benefits. Also, alcohol companies should refrain from using such studies to promote their products, according to Medical News Today.

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