Want to cut back on alcohol? You may see conflicting advice on low-risk drink limits

TORONTO — As some people try to cut down their drinking and embrace Dry January, they may look to Canada’s health agencies for guidance — and find some conflicting advice.

This week, the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research launched a website where users can calculate their health risks — including cancer, heart disease and stroke — based on the amount of alcohol they consume.

The website is built on guidelines issued two years ago by the government-supported Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), which said the risk of cancer rises at much lower levels of alcohol consumption than previously thought. Any more than two standard drinks a week puts people at higher risk, it said in its report.

However, Health Canada has not adopted the changes the CCSA released in January 2023. It still advises Canadians to limit their drinks to 10 per week for women and 15 per week for men — an amount that the CCSA says puts someone at “increasingly high risk” of developing serious illness, including breast and colon cancer.

Health Canada’s guide has been in place since 2011 and the government is sticking with it, the office of the federal minister of mental health and addictions told The Canadian Press Thursday.

Dr. Timothy Naimi, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, said the conflicting guidance “has been an ongoing issue for the public health community and scientists” for the last two years.

Naimi was one of the researchers involved in developing the CCSA’s updated guidelines and led the creation of the new website — knowalcohol.ca — that allows people to calculate their risk and the positive impact of reducing their alcohol consumption.

Both the Health Canada and the CCSA guidelines say the only zero-risk approach to alcohol is not to drink it at all.

“Alcohol remains a leading preventable cause of health and social problems in Canada,” said Naimi.

“I think a lot of Canadians have been interested in drinking less. But if you look at it, governments haven’t really followed suit with the kind of policies that would help people drink less, you know, sort of guide them in that direction.”

Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, placing it in the same category as tobacco smoke and asbestos, along with more than 100 other substances.

On Friday, the U.S. Surgeon General called for more public awareness about the link between alcohol and cancer, including warning labels on alcohol bottles and containers.

The surgeon general’s advisory said less than half of American adults know that there’s a link between alcohol and seven types of cancers, including breast, liver, colorectal, esophagus, mouth, throat and larynx.

Naimi said a similar number of Canadians are unaware about the link between alcohol and these types of cancer.

“Most people are getting their information about alcohol from the (alcohol) industry, which is to say they’re not getting information that alcohol causes cancer,” he said.

“Currently the government does not require any kind of health warning or health information on alcohol labels in contrast to what’s required for cigarettes or cannabis products, or frankly, for any other packaged food and beverage products sold in Canada.”

In an emailed statement Thursday evening, the office of federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Ya’ara Saks said officially updating alcohol guidelines is a work in progress.

“Canada’s 2011 low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines remain the official guidance to Canadians and Health Canada’s website continues to reflect this,” the statement said.

“The CCSA’s proposed guidelines are part of discussions with a broad range of stakeholders to determine the best approaches to communicating on the risks of alcohol consumption to the public.”

Naimi said he believes the federal government’s hesitancy to adopt the revised guidelines is due to “industry pressure,” noting that Health Canada was “very happy with the scientific process” behind them.

The Canadian Press has asked Saks’ office whether there is pressure from the alcohol industry on changing recommended daily limits, if they have concerns about the evidence cited by the CCSA, and if they believe the conflicting advice is confusing for Canadians looking to change their habits.

As of Friday afternoon, responses to those questions had not been received.

Knowalcohol.ca officially launched on Thursday and a social media promotion campaign will begin Monday.

Naimi said the purpose of the website is not necessarily to convince people to stop drinking altogether, but to “inform people in a hopefully non-threatening but informative way” about the impacts of alcohol.

Users enter their age, sex and number of standard drinks they have per week and have the options of calculating their health risks, the amount of money drinking is costing them, or the number of calories they’re consuming.

The knowalcohol.ca calculator also offers the option of entering the number of drinks the user might consider cutting back to and seeing what difference that could make.

“If you’re drinking, you know five or six drinks a day and you can cut down to two or three drinks a day, you’re going to be so much better off, even if you’re still…in the higher risk zone,” Naimi said.

The health harms for any given amount are displayed in risk percentages of developing cancers, how many cigarettes the number of drinks equates to, and number of minutes of life lost per drink.

“At the end of the day…what we’re really after is just having credible, actionable information available for consumers so that they can be empowered to make their own choices,” Naimi said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press