Alcohol: Canada’s radical call for sobriety

No glass of alcohol, and zero grams in the blood. This is now the ideal alcohol consumption according to the Canadian Center for Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), an agency attached to Health Canada, the equivalent of Public Health France. Canada has lowered its recommendations on alcohol consumption to take into account recent research on the harmful potential of even low alcohol consumption (carcinogenic risk, hypertension, etc.), as well as on the harmful potential of alcohol consumption on those around the drinker.

For the CCSA, no alcohol consumption now falls into the “zero risk” consumption category. “If you drink, it is always better to drink less”, states the agency, in its most recent report . Drinking between one and two drinks a week is considered “low risk” drinking. The “moderate risk” category – where the likelihood of “cancers, including breast and colon cancers” increases, starts at two or three drinks per week.