Alcohol: Canada recommends limiting consumption to two drinks per week

The Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction has just issued an opinion on alcohol consumption that an adult should monitor. He says Canadians should limit their alcohol intake to two drinks a week.

A significant reduction compared to the previous recommendations, which mentioned ten drinks per week for women and fifteen for men. A change that comes as an official from the World Health Organization recently recalled that “no amount of alcohol is safe”.

Alcohol consumption: significant disparities around the world

If the new Canadian recommendations seem drastic, it is because elsewhere in the world, the recommendations concerning alcohol consumption are much higher. In the neighboring United States, women can drink up to seven standard drinks per week and men fourteen. In Australia, authorities recommend limiting yourself to 11 beers per week.

What are the recommendations in France?

In France, the recommendations of health authorities on alcohol are close to those countries. “One should drink no more than ten drinks per week, have one day of abstinence per week and drink no more than four drinks per drinking occasion. recalls Philippe Batel, addictologist psychiatrist.

Remember that a glass of alcohol corresponds to 10 grams of pure alcohol, regardless of the type of alcohol. Thus, in terms of alcohol, a glass of champagne of 10 cl is therefore equivalent to half a beer which has 25 cl or to a glass of Scotch, which only has 2.5 cl.

Alcohol is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States

According to the latest findings of a US study, alcohol consumption is linked to one in five deaths in the United States from all causes. Alcohol is also an underlying or contributing cause of 90,000 adult deaths between the ages of 20 and 65, each year between 2015 and 2019, according to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Finally, alcohol accounted for 12% of deaths from all causes during the same period.

Causes of death attributable to alcohol consumption include alcoholic liver disease, poisoning, motor vehicle accidents, homicide, cirrhosis and hypertension. Finally, the study points out that alcohol consumption remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States today.