Research described in this thesis provides evidence for a causal inverse relation of moderate alcohol consumption with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. First, it showed that these inverse associations are consistent over different populations such as hypertensive men and older women, both at increased risk of those diseases. Increased cholesterol efflux and adiponectin concentrations after moderate alcohol consumption are a plausible mechanism to explain the associations. Finally, an interaction of alcohol intake with the alcohol dehydrogenase gene for type 2 diabetes indicates that this relation may be causal and due to downstream metabolites instead of ethanol itself.