Even if moderate alcohol intake only increases risk from diseases like cancer a tiny bit, it still negatively affects your sleep, increases inflammation, ages your skin faster, etc.

I gave up alcohol years ago. One of the best life choices I ever made.

I'm all for being more healthy but at the same time I think a lot of people are failing to talk about the fact that this current generation (younger than millennials let's say) seems to be not drinking at all. While that might be healthier by the book, one thing it certainly decreases is time with friends and potentially time to network with others or make connections you might not otherwise.

If one to two drinks per week, or a glass of wine with dinner with friends increases your overall happiness because you had healthy relationships, or because you met somebody who opened up some other opportunity for you, that probably is an overall net positive compared to not drinking and thus perhaps not going out.

Inb4 "you shouldn't need to drink to have good friendships" yeah okay but sometimes it can just be fun to loosen up a bit and have a good time with your friends and i don't think looking back on my 20s i'd trade my fun nights out for the alternative (staying in and likely grinding CS. counterstrike, not even computer science). YMMV.

I started drinking up alcohol a couple of years ago. One of the best life choices I ever made.