C-Force: When It Comes to Weighing Drinking Habits, How Much Is Safe?
As to eliminating alcohol altogether, Dr. Nick Sheron, a hepatologist and a visiting professor at Kings College London, said, according to a recent AARP report, "Deciding how much risk you're willing to take may depend on your individual risk for certain diseases. If cancer is your concern, especially breast cancer, abstinence may be your best bet.
"For others, the advice tends to be, if you are a heavy drinker, you should cut back. And if you don't drink at all, there's no good reason to start."
However, Sheron says, "The thing that's never counted in any of these studies is the pleasure that people get from alcohol and the social interactions around it."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults of legal drinking age can choose not to drink, or to drink in moderation by limiting intake to 2 drinks or less in a day for men or 1 drink or less in a day for women. ... The Guidelines also do not recommend that individuals who do not drink alcohol start drinking for any reason and that if adults of legal drinking age choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drinking less is better for health than drinking more."
As another Time article notes, "It took decades for smoking rates to fall to their current historically low levels, even after U.S. public-health authorities began sounding the alarm about associated health risks." John Callaci, a researcher with Loyola University Chicago's Alcohol Research Program, says, "Cultural perceptions of alcohol may evolve in a similar way," according to Time.
In the meantime, you might want to consider a Psychology Today post by Dr. Timmen L. Cermak, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction medicine. "In struggles to control any substance, moderation becomes a go-to form of harm reduction," he says. "How we conceptualize the conflict between desire and better judgment determines how we manage it."
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