Drinking just THREE alcoholic beverages a week is bad for your health, controversial study claims, warning punters to limit their intake to just two small glasses of wine – or a pint and a half of beer
- Drinkers are being told to limit themselves to just two small glasses a week
- The new report claims having more than three drinks puts you at ‘moderate risk’
- Claims come in report by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
First it was 26 glasses of wine a week, then it was 17, then ten, and the latest UK guidelines whittled it down to six.
Now drinkers are being told to limit themselves to just two small glasses – or a pint and a half of beer – a week to avoid damaging their health, by the authors of a controversial new report.
And people who have three drinks a week are putting themselves at ‘moderate risk’ of alcohol-related harm to health, their study claims, while those who indulge in more than six a week are exposing themselves to ‘increasingly high risk’.
The new claims come in a report by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), funded by the Canadian government. And its ‘small drinks’ are undersized by UK standards – equivalent to a 125ml glass of wine or three-quarters of a pint of beer.
Last night Dr Richard Harding, who helped review sensible drinking messages for the UK Government in the mid-1990s, hit out at the report.
He argued the claim that having just three drinks a week harmed health was ‘not supported by the medical evidence – in fact, quite the reverse’.
Now drinkers are being told to limit themselves to just two small glasses – or a pint and a half of beer – a week to avoid damaging their health, by the authors of a controversial new report (stock image)
‘Fifty years of epidemiological and clinical research points to substantial health benefits – not harms – of daily intakes of small amounts of alcohol,’ he said. ‘The plain fact is that, if people were to follow the recommendation to reduce their consumption to two small drinks or less a week, it is likely that they would be worse off in health terms.’
Christopher Snowdon, of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, said: ‘A limit of two drinks per week is so ridiculously low that it will be greeted with derision by the public.’
Both said studies have consistently found overall death rates are lower in those who drink small amounts of alcohol, compared to teetotallers.
If CCSA’s ‘two-drink rule’ was adopted in Britain, it would mean quartering our current recommended maximum of 14 UK alcohol units a week for both men and women – roughly six pints of beer – to around 3.5 units, about a pint and a half.
People who have three drinks a week are putting themselves at ‘moderate risk’ of alcohol-related harm to health, their study claims, while those who indulge in more than six a week are exposing themselves to ‘increasingly high risk’ (stock image)
Britain’s recommendations are more stringent than Canada’s, in part because they were updated more recently. Canada’s, set in 2011, are no more than 25 UK units for men per week and 17 for women.
The CCSA argues current alcohol guidelines tend to be based on ‘risk thresholds’ that are much higher than those considered acceptable for other voluntary activities, such as smoking or having unprotected sex.
Its report is the latest in a succession from public health experts around the world to take a much harder line on low-level alcohol consumption.
But critics say these often ignore evidence of potential benefit for light drinkers.
In January, charity the World Heart Federation was accused of ‘seriously misrepresenting’ evidence to bolster its argument that drinking even small amounts of alcohol is bad for the heart.
Mr Snowden said such reports were part of ‘a concerted effort by anti-alcohol academics to reduce drinking guidelines. The goal is ultimately to cut them to zero so they can claim that there is ‘no safe level’ of drinking.’
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