Posted on 01/19/2023 6:46:05 AM PST by billorites
In Canada, it should be Dry January all year round, according to new national recommendations that say zero alcohol is the only risk-free approach.
If you must drink at all, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low-risk by the government-backed guidance.
The advice is a steep drop from the previous recommendation, published in 2011.
Those guidelines allowed a maximum of 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks for men.
The new report, funded by Health Canada, also suggested mandatory warning labels for all alcoholic beverages.
"The main message from this new guidance is that any amount of alcohol is not good for your health," said Erin Hobin, a senior scientist with Public Health Ontario and a member of the expert panel that developed the guidelines. "And if you drink, less is better."
The nearly 90-page report, from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), details a variety of health risks associated with what was previously considered low alcohol consumption.
According to the CCSA, any more than two standard drinks - each the equivalent of a 12-ounce (341ml; 0.6 pints) serving of 5 percent alcohol beer or a five-ounce (142ml; 0.26 pints) glass of 12 percent alcohol wine - brings an increase in negative outcomes, including breast and colon cancer.
It may be a rude awakening for the roughly 80 percent of Canadian adults who drink.
"The new guidance is maybe a bit shocking," Dr Hobin said. "I think it's very new information for the public that at three standard drinks per week, the risk for head and neck cancers increases by 15 percent, and further increases with every additional drink.
"Three standard drinks per week to most Canadians wouldn't be considered a large amount of alcohol," she added.
Canadian experts say the drastic change in guidance - from nearly two drinks per day to two per week - is the result of better research over time.
"The data across the board 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 with Australia, US and UK
The new recommendations put the country out of step with several other Western nations. New Zealand's national guidance recommends no more than 10 standard drinks per week for women and no more than 15 per week for men. Australia's national guidance, published in 2020, recommends a maximum of 10 standard drinks a week and 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 - around six glasses of wine, or pints of beer - per week.
But Canada is not a total outlier. As of 2015, the Netherlands' health council recommended that people abstained from alcohol altogether, or drink no more than one standard drink each day.
It's still an open question whether Canadians - who love their beer almost as much as they love hockey - will be convinced to drink less because of this guidance.
According to the Global Drug Survey, in drinking frequency, Canada does not rank in the top 10 countries globally, falling below the global average. But on the measure of "feeling drunk", Canada jumped to the sixth spot, just behind the US and the UK.
"Alcohol is largely a part of our culture in Canada, it's normalised, it's largely socially acceptable," Dr Hobin said. "You'll see alcohol at birthdays, weddings or when you're watching Hockey Night in Canada on a Saturday night", she said, referring to the beloved weekly sports programme.
CCSA scientists and other experts say that mandatory labelling 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 of cancer warning labels on alcohol beverages, Dr Hobin studied the effects of such warnings at liquor stores in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. The labels were found to decrease per capita alcohol sales by 7 percent compared to control sites in Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Still, mandating nationwide labelling would require sign-off from Health Canada.
In a statement to the BBC, the agency thanked the CCSA for its work, saying alcohol use presents "serious and complex public health and safety issues". But it would not comment on adding health warnings to Canadians' drinks.
“Government backed guidance.”
But no limit on hard drugs, because, progress.
Finally, a problem not caused by Climate Change.
In Ontario that’s been modified to two drinks an hour.
CC
Life’s to short to stay sober, go F yourself Canada
World wide research on the benefits of two glasses per day, differs with these Canucks=’s opinion.
Think I will ignore this “science “ My body my choice
She’s tan for a Canadian. Is she fake baking?
Is that healthy? I want to know what skin products she’s using.
Not so fast! Give 'em another day or two, they'll come up with a connection.
Is CCSA one of those teetotaler groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) down here in the USA?
Nanny State in Canada PING!
I’m so glad there was no virtue-signally garbage like “Dry January” when I was a young adult.
It looks like the left wants to demonize alcohol the way they have cigarettes and make it socially taboo. Leftists sure are a bunch of buzzkills. I’m glad I don’t hang around with ‘em.
Correct, it's a problem caused by tyrannical dictators who feel it's their duty to control your life in every way possible.
I need at least a glass of wine a day to keep my sanity due to “moronic government policies”.
Today it’s a guide.
Tomorrow it’s an edict.......................
Where would mankind be, without a govt to tell them how much to drink, smoke, and eat? Without mandating usage directions on knives, hammers, shampoo bottles?
Once you get your medical care paid for by your taxes, the government becomes a vested stakeholder in all activities that might affect the cost of your healthcare.
You can probably get a waiver from them if you agree to euthanasia upon a cirrhosis diagnosis.
Outlaw all alcoholic beverages. What could possibly go wrong?
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