New guidance outlines how much alcohol Canadians should drink

New guidance on drinking for Canadians is out today, and the whole idea is less is more when it comes to alcohol consumption and your health.

As of Tuesday, the Canadian Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines from 2011 have been replaced, and the new ones are shaking things up.

The changes are based on years of research showing that alcohol's affects on health are more pronounced than people used to think.

"We believe Canadians have the right to know more information about alcohol than they currently do, Currently, most Canadians are not very literate, shall we say, about the risks from alcohol," said Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research.

Canada’s new guidance on alcohol and health recommends people consider reducing their alcohol use.

"We're not trying to give people one level to shoot for because we know it's not possible for a lot of people. But what we are trying to do is wherever they drink, consider drinking less in order to live longer and improve their health,” Naimi explained.

According to the new guidance, the risk for those who consume two standard drinks or less per week is low; three to six drinks a week is moderate; and above six standard drinks per week is increasingly high.

CancerCare Manitoba is starting to talk about alcohol in the same way since the risk for cancers, like breast and colon, starts increasing even with moderate drinking.

"The idea being that as often as possible, people really should be drinking two drinks or less per week, and that is a big change for people to wrap their head around,” said Dr. Donna Turner with CancerCare Manitoba.

The report highlights that each year there are 7,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths in Canada.

The guidance also recommends Canada start requiring warnings on labels.

"That would include the number of standard drinks, and also some health information and ideally a bit more information about the guidelines,” Naimi said.

One standard drink is a bottle of beer or cider, a five-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of spirits.