The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) recommends no more than two standard alcoholic drinks per week and states that no amount of alcohol use is considered safe.
“Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen. That’s not new, but many people don’t realize it,” said Jalen Clover, a health promotion specialist with the Middlesex-London Health Unit. “It’s in the same category as tobacco and asbestos. We wouldn’t tell someone to limit asbestos exposure to twice a week, yet that’s how people think about alcohol.”
Clover said the latest guidance, released in 2023, replaces the country’s 2011 Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines. Since then, growing evidence has emerged about alcohol’s role in both chronic disease and injury.
“There’s been a lot more research on alcohol-related injuries, morbidity and mortality,” she said. “That data was what prompted experts to re-evaluate and create this new national guidance.”
Unlike the old guidelines, which emphasized weekly limits by gender, the new advice focuses on a risk continuum. This approach shows how the risk of harm increases with every additional drink, and lets individuals assess where they fall on the spectrum.
“It’s not about shaming people,” Clover said. “It’s about giving them information they may have never had. With alcohol, there’s often a perception that it’s harmless in moderation — but that’s just not supported by current science.”
How alcohol harms the body
Clover says alcohol affects nearly every major system in the body, even at low levels.
“It’s a psychoactive substance,” she said. “It impacts the brain, the heart, the circulatory system. It slows reaction time, impairs memory, vision, and motor skills. People tend to think only of liver damage, but that’s just one part of the picture.”
According to the new guidelines, alcohol is causally linked to at least seven different types of cancer, including breast, colorectal, mouth, throat, liver, esophageal and laryngeal cancers.
“That’s something many people are not aware of,” said Clover. “The cancer connection is well-established in the research, but it hasn’t really filtered into public awareness the way it has for tobacco.”
She adds that alcohol is also associated with increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety.
And while much of the conversation focuses on the person drinking, Clover said alcohol also increases risks for others.
“There’s a major connection between alcohol use and violence, injuries, and impaired driving,” she said. “That harm doesn’t just impact the drinker — it can affect family, friends, strangers. It’s a broader public health concern.”
Any reduction matters
Still, Clover emphasized that the goal of the new guidelines isn’t to tell people they must stop drinking altogether.
“Any reduction is beneficial,” she said. “It’s not all or nothing. If someone drinks seven or eight drinks a week, and cuts down to two or three, that’s a meaningful health improvement.”
She said people who drink less often report better sleep, improved energy, clearer concentration and lower blood pressure.
“These are real, tangible benefits,” she said. “The idea is to empower people to make informed choices based on evidence — not to guilt them, but to support them.”
Resources available
Clover recommends that anyone interested in learning more visit rethinkyourdrinking.ca, where Health Canada and local health units share accessible tools and risk charts.
“There’s a great visual showing the continuum of risk. You can find where you fall, and what that means for your health,” she said. “Once people have that knowledge, they can decide for themselves if they want to make a change.”
She added that education is especially important for younger adults and university students, who often normalize high levels of drinking without knowing the long-term effects.
“It’s not just about binge drinking or addiction,” she said. “Even regular, moderate alcohol use carries risks and those risks add up over time.”
