In In recent years there has been an increase in alcohol -related deaths And that is why there is a constant wave of news about the health risks of alcohol consumption (which can lead cancer Or cirrhosis). The calls to only drink in moderation have become more urgent, but according to the specialists that is a misconception, after which the marketing of those who sell these kinds of drinks is hidden.
Experts always thought that a low or moderate alcohol consumption (a daily glass in women and two for men) was good for health. This The assumption was based on studies that showed that those who drank in moderation lived more than they had not held with them or drunk exaggerated. But the years have shown that there is nothing ‘scientifically demonstrable’ behind this statement.
Experts about Terrible health consequences linked to excessive alcohol consumption, People often assume that they refer to people who have an alcohol consumption. But health risks derived from drinking can also come from moderate consumption.
Cancer related to alcohol consumption
The Branch (WHO) Branch (WHO) of the European Health Organization (WHO) He has to label alcoholic beverages at the Member States With the warning that Consuming alcohol causes cancer. In the United States, the general surgeon, the most important spokesperson for public health, recently made a similar recommendation. Ireland has imposed this labeling from 2026; It will be the second country in the world to do this after South Korea.
Surveys in Europe, the US, Australia and other regions show that the risk of cancer Because alcohol is still unknown among the population. In addition, in a society culturally closely connected to drinks and above all Wine has been rooted the idea that one has been rooted for decades Moderate consumption It is not only harmless, but even healthier than drinking nothing. But does this idea support current science?
From what There is no doubt about the relationship between alcohol and at least Seven types of cancer, That is not exactly a novelty: since 1988, the subsequent studies, the international agency of the Cancer whose (IARC) it has included in group 1 of carcinogens, the same to which tobacco, radiation or asbestos belongs.
At that time, the causal alcohol relationship was considered proven Cancers From the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus and liver, to which the Colorectals and chest have then added. According to the IARC, 4 % of the cancers diagnosed worldwide are due to alcohol consumption, Adding more than 740,000 cases per year and 401,000 deaths.
Data collected from an Australian study by the US surgeon office of the US It causes 3 % more cancers in men and 5 % more in women.
Almost the A quarter of the worldwide -related cancers correspond to Europe, The continent where it is the most drunk: on average 8.8 liters of pure alcohol per year for every adult European, according to the European Health Report of the WHO of 2024, published in 2025. In fact in the old continent the cancer It is the first cause of death of all that caused by this substance, with a third of the total deaths attributed to the drink.
Spain: High consumption of light drinks
In annual consumption of pure alcohol by adults and according to the latter that reports, Spain is located in the middle part of the European table, in the 27th position of 51 stateswith 9.2 liters. However, there is an alarm signal: it is the fifth country where consumption increased between 2010 and 2019.
Another disturbing factOf the previous 2021 who reports, Spain is the second EU country where the most part of the baby population, 13 %, only below almost 21 % in Portugal.
Spain, however, is low in the arrange of the countries with larger drinkers; It is often drunk, but Without large excesses and especially low graduation drinks such as such as Beer and wine.
Is moderate consumption favorable?
Despite everything, the idea is that moderate alcohol consumption is even healthier than abstinence. It is based on studies that They made a popular one decades ago Graphic in the form of sloping “J”: If the level of alcohol consumption is in the horizontal axis, the risk of death, the shape of the curve suggests that the optimum in light consumption suggests.
But rigorous reviews and more recent studies have drawn a different conclusion. According to Tim Stockwell, from the Canadian Institute for the use of fabrics and emeritus of professor at the University of Victoria, “these studies are often conducted in older populations, which means that most of the majority of the majority of the majority of the majority Current Abstemious are old drinkers who have left him for health reasons“.
He The problem of these prejudices is not new, but it has been ignored: already in 1988 A study in The Lancet He warned of them. In successive assessments of hundreds of studies, however, Stockwell discovered them in 80 % of the studies. “When this problem is avoided, the J -shaped curve fades or reduces strongly,” he says.
The expert adds that “the Evidence that low doses of alcohol is increasing, the risk of cancer has grown”, And that the WHO figures are probably an underestimation: the American disease trol center now also contains the cancer From prostate among those caused by alcohol.
The wine: another myth
At Sydney University, Alcohol and Health Expert Rachel Vintay He has also assessed earlier studies with a rigorous methodology. As he explains, The relationship between moderate consumption and health ‘is a complex relationshipOften strengthened by other factors such as physical exercise or income level.
Only focus on the highest quality studies that define other parameters and get closer to a relationship of causes and effects, “The benefits of the drink at a low level are much smaller of what was thought if they exist at all.
Vesantay emphasizes that this also applies to the cardiovascular health And that “in general, The conclusions are the same, regardless of what drinks, beer, wine or liqueurs. In particular, wine usually acts as an exception of alcohol risks due to its contents in antioxidant and anti -inflammatory polyphenols such as the Resveratrol, which cardiovascular benefits are attributed to.
But even accepting the virtues of resveratrol, on which certain revisions They conclude that even more data is needed, the quantity of the connection that a moderate wine consumption offers is very small; and “loose Injury They exceed any possible advantage, “warns Vesantay, adding that every dose of alcohol, no matter how small, increases the risk cancer And other diseases. Resveratrol can in any case be obtained from non -alcoholic sources, such as grape And other foods.
Women, especially risk
Concrete alcohol damage concerns women, because hormonal changes are the risk of influencing Breast cancer. The epidemiologist of cancer Jachthaven Pollán“ Director of the Carlos III Health Institute and scientific director of the Biomedical Research Consortium in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBRESP), He investigated the relationship between alcohol consumption and breast cancer
“Our results iThey steal greater vulnerability in adolescence, which makes it very logicalBecause it is the moment of the biggest development of the mammary: the cells are that spreading And they are more sensitive to possible carcinogenic stimuli, “says Pollán. Risk During life.
Although the effect is small with low doses of alcohol, girl It excludes that moderate consumption can be harmless: “The great studies and meta analysis that have been carried out do not support that conclusion.”
Nor does it endorse that the wine is an exception: most women who have been included, drink or consume not little; But “those who consume alcohol only declare consumption Wine or beer“ And yet we observe risk -gain for breast cancerWhich seems to indicate that the protective effect in this context and for this type of tumor would not be sufficient to prevent alcohol.
Industrial interests
In view of all the above, why does the myth Of moderate consumption? According to Stockwell in a podcast From the University of Chicago: “There are major influences from people who produce alcohol and financial research.” In the US, A great essay promoted by the national health institutes when it was discovered that the alcohol industry was financed. Complaint bothering: ‘Some of his acolytes regularly attack me, online Or in printed media.