The simple act of splitting a bottle of wine with a friend has become a fraught exercise in math. If there are five 5-oz glasses in a 750-ml bottle of wine, and my female friend and I drink two glasses, what happens to the fifth glass? And are we poisoning ourselves with each delicious sip?
I refer, of course, to the new Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines released by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, which have been received with strong reactions of all kinds on social and mainstream media.
The gist of them is that any amount of imbibing can have a negative impact on one’s health. But, perhaps in an attempt not to appear entirely puritanical, the new alcohol guidelines allow us two drinks. Two drinks per week for women, that is, before we are putting ourselves at risk of “negative health consequences.” (Men can have three.) A standard drink is a 5-oz glass of wine, a single bottle of beer or cider, or one shot of spirits — hence the wine bottle math.
Most restaurants offer a variety of sizes: 5 oz, 8 oz and the monster 12-oz version. Usually I lean toward the 12 oz because I know that current me will likely order at least two of the 5-oz glasses. But now it seems I must choose the two 5 oz or ask my husband to drink the extra.
Specifically, the report states consuming three to six drinks per week increases the risk of developing certain cancers, including breast cancer and colon cancer. Raise more than seven drinks to your lips and your risk of heart disease, other types of cancer and liver cirrhosis “exponentially increases.”
I am a cancer survivor and yet, the possibility of a return of the disease hasn’t stopped me drinking. But lately, as I drink a glass of Kim Crawford, I wonder how badly I should feel about it. Will these new — and frankly scary — guidelines be the final nail in the oak barrel?
If I seem flippant about this, it’s because the last three years of restrictions, mandates and general societal breakdown have left me feeling burned out with rules, even if they are hidden behind the more friendly word “guidelines.” Many conversations with friends (yes, sometimes over a glass of sauvignon blanc) have revealed I’m not alone in my frustration about this, but also that it does have many of us reassessing how much we drink and how often.
It’s a perfect storm because many of us have been drinking more than we used to. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 24 per cent of us increased our alcohol consumption during COVID. I’m one of the 24 per cent and it’s a habit that has been difficult to rein in.
Rhonda (not her real name) is too. She admits she started drinking more during the pandemic and got used to that as a new normal. “We just always had wine on the go: a glass while making dinner, another glass with dinner, maybe another after … it adds up. I guess I told myself, the world is so screwed up and stressful right now, I deserve a drink. Or three.”
The latest studies got to her. “I’ve been thinking about cutting back for quite a while and I have to say that the guidelines did act like a kick in the pants,” she said. “I’m definitely still drinking more than two glasses of wine per week, but I’m also not allowing myself to drink with a who cares attitude anymore.”
Sheri (not her real name), a Toronto office manager at a film-production company, says at one time she would have jokingly described herself as “a raging alcoholic.” But since the pandemic calmed down, so has her wine consumption. “I stopped drinking during the week and enjoy wine on the weekend,” she said. “That’s at least a bottle so, technically, according to the new guidelines, I am still a raging alcoholic.”
She says the new alcohol guidelines won’t really change her current habits. “I have no doubt that the evidence is there that alcohol is not good for you, but I also know that there’s few things that are better than a gorgeous meal with a robust bottle of red with a dear friend. And they ain’t taking that away from me!”
Karen Ashbee, a freelance writer based in Calgary, isn’t too concerned either. “I’ll take my chances,” she said. “I think like most studies, if you cherry pick the research you arrive at the responses that you want. So I paid no attention to (the guidelines). I subscribe to the rule of everything in moderation.”
Ashbee added that her husband is both an oenophile and an excellent cook, and both of them enjoy pairing food with wine. “If we make a lovely meal, we will definitely open a decent bottle from the cellar.”
But Anya Shor, who lives north of Toronto, thinks it was about time that the “booze is bad” message got the attention it deserves.
“We know it’s bad for you and we know most of us drink more than we should,” she said. “There has been mounting evidence about the damages of alcohol use and yet it’s so normalized on social media and in ‘mom culture’ with wine being called ‘mom juice.’ Cringe.”
Shor sees differences in attitudes toward men’s and women’s drinking — namely, “men drinking (bad), women drinking (she’s fun or she’s a mom so therefore she needs it!).”
It’s true that drinking alcohol is really ingrained into our culture and has been for quite some time, said Sarah Dermody, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“I think it is natural to question these new recommendations as they seem to contradict society’s understanding of alcohol as a substance for leisure, bonding and coping,” said Dermody. “That being said, a large research literature has demonstrated that any alcohol use comes with risk. Of course, this risk will depend on the individual, situation, context and so on. The guidelines are meant to provide a guideline for a level of drinking that will be relatively low risk.”
She notes that the two-glasses-per-week recommendation is a “one-size-fits-all approach” that is unfortunately the standard in public health communications.
“On the one hand, some women may have underlying health conditions that suggest they should not drink at all. Other women may have different biology that could make them more or less susceptible to the harms of drinking,” Dermody explained. “It is important to keep in mind that these numbers may not apply to everyone. For instance, an issue with the guidelines is that they do not clarify how they should be used for gender diverse people and this is a major limitation.”
Shor is also dubious about the two-drink limit. “I think we need to take it with a grain of salt. It’s like they can’t come out and say you shouldn’t drink at all, so they came up with this,” she said. “It’s like telling people it’s OK to just have two cigarettes a week. It’s unrealistic. For most, you either smoke or you don’t.”
For those of us who were already questioning their relationship with alcohol, the guidelines are merely confirmation of what we suspected. When I don’t drink, I know I sleep better, my mood is brighter, I feel and look better, and my ability to concentrate is sharpened. But drinking a glass of wine or a cocktail feels good and eases negative feelings in the moment.
As George Bernard Shaw said, “Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.” Ultimately, though, I’m realizing that consuming copious amounts of alcohol to cope will ultimately give me one more problem to cope with. And that’s something I can live without.
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