Alcohol drinking linked to breast cancer

Just because it offers cardiovascular benefit doesn't mean you can ignore its adverse effect.

http://www.dor.kaiser.org/dors/news/Sept2007_alcohol_breast_cancer.shtml
Cohort 70,000 people, time span more than 20 years. Quite convincing. "women who drank between one and two alcoholic drinks per day increased their risk of breast cancer by 10 percent compared with light drinkers who drank less than one drink a day. The risk of breast cancer increased by 30 percent in women who drank more than three drinks a day."

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/be_well/wine_health_benefits_qa_bewell0808.aspx
Practical advice. "If you want to drink wine, limit your intake to four glasses or fewer per week, and be sure to take a multivitamin every day." "increased risk could be somewhat offset by ingesting the recommended daily amount of folate or folic acid (400 mcg). Both are forms of Vitamin B9. Folate occurs naturally in green, leafy vegetables, citrus fruits and dried beans, while folic acid, which is better absorbed, is synthetic and mainly found in multivitamins."

Some researches show that it's alcohol in wine or champaigne that is responsible for the positive cardiovascular effect. But now you face a dilemma, especially if you're a woman of the age for breast cancer. The above articles didn't say, but you can still eat dark chocolate, or many other good things, and exercise, for the health of heart and blood circulation.

2009-07 update:
Moderate Alcohol Intake and Cancer Incidence in Women, Journal of the National Cancer Institute