A Canadian health agency has backed a report claiming that even a little alcohol is a lot of alcohol.
In Canada, new national recommendations emphasize that there is no safe amount of alcohol intake.
If a person chooses to drink, according to the document, a maximum of two drinks per week is the amount considered low-risk under government-backed guidelines.
The advice is a marked decrease from the previous recommendation, published in 2011.
Previous guidelines recommended a maximum of 10 drinks per week for women and 15 drinks per week for men.
“The main message of this new guidance is that any amount of alcohol is not good for your health,” said Erin Hobin, senior scientist at Public Health Ontario and member of the expert panel that developed the guidelines.
“And if you drink, the less the better.”
The nearly 90-page report, from the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction, outlines several health risks associated with what was once considered low alcohol consumption.
According to the CCSA, more than two 12-ounce beers of 5% alcohol or a 5-ounce glass of wine with 12% alcohol lead to an increase in adverse outcomes, including breast and colon cancer.
The information could come as a shock to an estimated 80 percent of Canadian adults who drink.
“The new guidance is perhaps a little shocking,” said Dr. Hobin. “I think it’s very new information to tell the public that with three drinks a week, your risk of head and neck cancer increases by 15 percent and increases with each additional drink or glass.”
“Three drinks a week for most Canadians would not be considered a large amount of alcohol,” he added.
Canadian experts say the dramatic shift in guidance — from nearly two drinks a day to two a week — is the result of better research over time.
“The overall data is improving in terms of how and what we’re measuring,” said Jacob Shelley, a professor of health and law at Western University.
How Canada compares to Australia, the US and the UK
The new recommendations put the country out of step with many other Western nations. Australian national guidance, released in 2020, recommends a maximum of 10 standard drinks per week. France suggests the same.
The US recommends no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women, while the UK suggests no more than 14 “units” of alcohol – about six glasses of wine or six pints of beer – per week. .
But Canada isn’t quite “off the curve.” In 2015, the Dutch health board recommended that people abstain from alcohol completely or have no more than one drink a day.
It’s still an open question whether Canadians — who love beer almost as much as they love hockey — will be persuaded to drink less because of this guidance.
According to the Global Drug Survey, in terms of frequency of use, Canada is not among the top 10 countries in the world, falling below the global average. But on the “feeling drunk” measure, Canada jumped to sixth place, just behind the US and UK.
“Alcohol is part of our culture in Canada, it’s normalized, it’s socially acceptable,” said Dr. Hobin. “You’ll see alcohol at birthdays, weddings, or when you watch Hockey Night in Canada on a Saturday night,” he said, referring to the beloved weekly sports show.
The CCSA scientists and other experts say mandatory labeling of all alcoholic beverages with health warnings, now common practice for cigarettes, is a necessary first step.
In 2017, in one of the only real-world experiments to date with cancer warnings on alcoholic beverages, Hobin studied the effects of those warnings on liquor stores in Whitehorse, the Yukon state capital.
Labels were found to reduce alcohol sales per capita by 7 percent compared to control sites in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
However, applying for national labeling would require approval from Health Canada.
In a statement to the BBC, the agency thanked the CCSA for its work, saying the use of alcohol poses “serious and complex public health and safety issues”. But he declined to comment on Canadians adding health warnings to drinks.
– This text was published in https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-64321922
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Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
