---
title: "New alcohol guidelines"
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markdown_url: "https://www.andreaproulxnd.com/llms/blog/new-alcohol-guidelines"
lastmod: "2023-02-21T23:41:30.000Z"
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Happy new year!

Who’s in for “dry January”? After the festivities of December, January can be an opportunity to clean up our eating and drinking habits.

Need some motivation to cut out or cut down your alcohol for this month?

The new Health Canada recommendations of 2022: 4g-11g per day of alcohol.

But what does that mean? What about “servings”?

It’s a trick question since “a serving” is often defined in grams of alcohol which is NOT standardized according to volume of liquid.

Quick cheat sheet for 14g of alcohol (which is 1 serving of alcohol)

- Wine = 5oz (148mL)
- Liquor = 1oz (30mL)
- Beer = 12oz (354mL) at 5% alcohol. Heads up in Canada 20 fl oz (568 mL) is a pint whereas an American pint is 16 US ounces (473mL)

[Cool resource – Drinks Calculator](https://therightamount.ca/sensible-guidelines/standard-drink-calculator/?utm_source=paidgoogle&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=therightamount)

So where do you land on the Health Canada recommendations of 4-11g alcohol per day?

A thorough and comprehensive study by Woods et al, published in the [Lancet in 2018](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29676281/) concluded that anything over 100 grams per week increased risk of death. Period. Yikes. 

For example, more than 100g alcohol per week as a 40-year-old? You’ve reduced your life expectancy by 6 months. Where a 40-year-old with over 350mg alcohol per week reduces their life expectancy by 4-5 years.

Feeling ok because you’re under 100g per week?

Turn out that even just one drink negatively sleep architecture, reduces deep sleep and REM sleep. So the quality of sleep is affected. And a poor night’s sleep increases food consumption by 300 calories the next day.

Not helpful to your waistline.

Alcohol consumption has woven itself into our social lives and often is enjoyed in celebration but can be used as self-medication for mood. So alcohol’s place and consumption deserves a much larger discussion – one that may have to happen with your health care provider.

But we can all agree that first, knowing a “serving” is a good place to start with our self-evaluation of our consumption and help make informed decisions about our choices.

Cheers to our health!

References

https://ccsa.ca/canadas-guidance-alcohol-and-health

PMID: 29676281