Published: Less than 50 min ago
There is a lot of different offers regarding the effect of alcohol on us. During the year, new guidelines are expected from several authorities. What really matters – are there healthy amounts of wine? And is it okay to drink while breastfeeding?
When Åsa Brugård Konde, nutritionist at the Swedish Food Agency, saw the proposal for the new Nordic nutritional recommendations (NNR) for alcohol and breastfeeding, she was surprised. They had changed from previously recommending a limited intake to not drinking anything at all.
– It was unexpected, previously they have been more similar to the Swedish dietary advice, she says.
The Nordic Council of Ministers is behind the NNR and they were last updated in 2012 and on June 20 a new version will be published. They form an important basis for the Swedish Food Agency’s dietary advice, but it is not the case that they are taken outright. Here, an own assessment is made from a Swedish perspective, explains Åsa Brugård Konde.
Have asked questions
There is no scientific evidence that there are any medical risks if a child is breastfed by a mother who has drunk alcohol. Therefore, the Swedish Food Agency has not recommended total abstinence for breastfeeding women. The amount of alcohol that passes into the breast milk is the same as in the mother’s blood, i.e. a concentration at the alcohol level.
– It is a completely different matter if we are talking about pregnancy, as the child ingests a significantly higher amount of alcohol, and in that case we recommend completely avoiding alcohol.
Restricting nursing women unnecessarily can be problematic.
– These are difficult balances because it is so difficult to research this and that there is therefore limited knowledge. You also have to consider other aspects, for example that it could lead to fewer people breastfeeding, which you have to take into account in the assessment, says Åsa Brugård Konde.
The Swedish Food Agency has now turned to the Nordic experts and asked for clarification on how they have reasoned.
Sharpening from several directions
But it is not only breastfeeding women who can receive new recommendations. At the beginning of the year, the WHO stated that there is no safe limit for alcohol consumption.
The message that previously existed that a couple of glasses of wine a week would be healthy for certain age groups is now being questioned and the collected research does not seem to support that there are “safe” amounts of alcohol.
– There has become an increasing skepticism among researchers that there would be a health benefit with moderate drinking. The studies that pointed towards it have been shown to have methodological flaws, says Sven Andreasson, alcohol doctor and professor emeritus of social medicine at the Karolinska Institutet.
Among other things, it is about people in the studies who were abstinent and did not drink at all abstaining from alcohol due to other illnesses. It gave the false impression that it was the absence of alcohol that made them sicker. In addition, there has been more and more research in recent years that points to an increased risk of several forms of cancer even with a low alcohol intake, which overall has changed the outlook.
Get things completely risk-free
But just like with everything else, it is up to each person to make an assessment of how important health is in relation to other things in life and the choices you are comfortable with. The recommendations given need to be realistic.
– We do a lot that we know is not good for us. We drive cars even though there is a risk of accidents and we eat things we like even though we know it is not healthy. If you drink moderately, the risk of illness and addiction is low, and the risk increases the more you drink, says Sven Andreasson.
FACTS
Standard glasses and recommendations
The latest research concludes that no amount of alcohol is completely risk-free. But with a consumption of less than ten standard glasses a week, the risks are small. A standard glass contains twelve grams of alcohol, which corresponds to:
• 50 cl folk beer
• 33 cl strong beer
• 15 cl of wine
• 8 cl fortified wine
• 4 cl hard liquor.
According to the recommendations that exist today, alcohol intake should be limited to a maximum of ten grams of alcohol per day for women and a maximum of 20 grams per day for men.
In autumn 2023, the National Board of Health and Welfare will come up with updated guidelines for “risky use” of alcohol, i.e. the limit at which the health and medical services should offer interventions. It is not clear whether these will mean a change compared to today.
The health risks are greater for those who drink heavily on occasional occasions and the general recommendations are therefore to drink less than four standard glasses during a drinking session.
Source: Swedish Food Agency, Public Health Guide
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