Jessica Cording (Alcohol & Your Health)
Registered Dietician Jessica Cording breaks down the real risks and potential benefits of alcohol. She explains short-term dangers like accidents and impaired judgment, long-term h...
Select an answer to get started
How much is safe to drink?
So moderate drinking currently is defined as one up to one alcoholic drink per day for women and up to two alcoholic drinks per day for men. Just be mindful though that, so for example, I shared the breast cancer example about increased risk with seven drinks a week, which is the definition of moderate drinking. So even moderate drinking is not risk-free. So I would definitely encourage drinking less than that on the regular.
Whare are the long-term risks of alchohol?
Things like weight gain, obesity, because we do know that alcohol contributes calories, impaired nutrient absorption, leading to malnutrition, liver issues, including liver toxicity, pancreas issues, so things like pancreatitis, alcohol intake has also been linked to several different cancers. So for example, like pancreatic cancer, certain gastric cancers, even breast cancer, that's one we don't hear about a lot. We do know, for example, with breast cancer that for every one drink someone has per day without seven drinks per week, increased risk is looking at about a 10% increased risk in breast cancer. So definitely something to be mindful of. And then of course, you also have things like learning and memory problems, including dementia, poor performance at school or at work, and then alcohol dependence and abuse. That comes up a lot. I think it's important to be thoughtful though, that a lot of these risks are associated with heavy drinking.
Whare are the short-term risks of alchohol?
Alcohol has been associated with things like accidents, injuries, alcohol poisoning, impaired decision making, things like mood changes and GI discomfort, hangovers, headaches, and then we're looking at as well, things like dizziness and just not feeling well. Any changes in eating patterns. Slurred speech is another thing that comes up a lot. So you're also looking at things like birth to birth, defects, miscarriage, even. So not small things.