Call it quits: No, one drink a day isn’t healthier than no drinks at all, new study finds

A US government alcohol study published last week concluded that the health risks of alcohol start at a single drink a day. The report was caught up in controversy after drawing the ire of the alcohol industry.

For people who have one drink a day on average, the researchers found, there was an increased risk of premature death from an illness or injury directly attributable to alcohol, though it was small — 1 in 1,000 people. But the risk of premature death jumped to 1 in 25 for those who had two drinks a day, a level long considered safe for men, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The Alcohol Intake and Health Study was one of two reports commissioned during the Biden administration to inform an update to the US dietary guidelines.

The second report, from a panel appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, or NASEM, came to very different conclusions. It suggested that moderate drinking (up to two drinks a day for men and one for women) was healthier than not drinking at all, although it noted that moderate drinking was also linked to a higher breast cancer risk. Some of the panelists behind that report had financial ties to the alcohol industry.

The second report’s finding was more palatable to the alcohol industry, which had called the Alcohol Intake and Health Study ideologically driven and scientifically flawed, and said it had communicated its concerns repeatedly to government officials over a period of several years.

“The new dietary guidelines say that consuming less is better for your health, but don’t say what consuming less means,” said Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, one of the authors of the new paper. “This paper does, and it says that having no more than one drink a day is best for health, and that drinking above that comes with significant risks.”

A standard drink is defined as 12 fluid ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.

The new study, which relied exclusively on US health data, assessed relationships between average alcohol consumption and the risk of disease or death from causes that were directly attributed to drinking.

Women who had one drink a day were more likely to die of liver cancer or breast cancer than women who did not drink. And at one drink a day, both men and women were at increased risk of dying from liver cirrhosis, oral and esophageal cancers, and injuries, the paper found. The risks continued to climb with higher levels of consumption.

Consuming more than one drink per occasion was associated with progressively higher risks of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and injury.

The report did find that one drink a day was associated with a lower risk of diabetes for women and a lowered risk of stroke for both men and women. However, occasional heavy drinking nullified the protective effects against stroke.

Dr Ned Calonge, an epidemiologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who led the NASEM study, said he stood by its conclusions.

“Alcohol research is complex, and I am not surprised by different methods producing different results,” Calonge said.

At the same time, he added, “I don’t believe anyone should start drinking for health reasons.”

Why no-drinking is good

• Women who have one drink a day are more likely to die of liver cancer or breast cancer than women who do not drink

• At one drink a day, both men and women are still at increased risk of dying from liver cirrhosis, oral and esophageal cancers, and injuries

• Consuming more than one drink per occasion is associated with progressively higher risks of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and injury

• One drink a day is associated with a lower risk of diabetes for women and a lowered risk of stroke for both men and women