In December 2015, 320 million Americans were told that “If alcohol is consumed, it should be in moderation—up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men—and only by adults of legal drinking age”. This recommendation is based on the fact that there are indeed health benefits linked to moderate alcohol consumption. On the contrary, in January 2016, 65 million Britons were told that there is no safe level of drinking and that men and women should not exceed 14 units per week, should they decide to drink. This follows a similar recommendation adopted in November in the Netherlands.
The UK guidelines inform consumers that if they drink to the indicated “low-risk drinking level”, they have less than a 1% chance of dying from an alcohol related condition. It is left to the consumer to decide what level of risk they find acceptable using the information provided. The full picture is that drinking up to 30g a day for a healthy adult man and 20g a day for a healthy adult woman (with a day or two of abstinence) would position these consumers at the same level of risk as abstainers. This is without the benefit associated with enjoying a drink in a friendly setting.
Instead of pushing for the overall population’s abstinence, the objective for the individual and society as a whole should be to discourage heavy episodic drinking, associated both with acute and chronic alcohol-related harms. Legislators should push towards moderate consumption, which does not mean zero consumption, and accompany the young adult generation with their aspiration for less but better products with history and tradition.
spiritsEUROPE and all its members have been engaged in this process for decades resulting in hundreds of prevention and information campaigns with measurable outcomes (see www.responsibledrinking.eu and www.drinksinitiatives.eu).
