WASHINGTON — Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, explained new federal guidelines recommending alcohol use in moderation, saying the takeaway should be, “Don’t have it for breakfast.”
Oz said federal officials are recommending moderation — rather than abstinence — because booze facilitates social relationships, which can have beneficial health effects.
“Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together. In the best-case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize, and there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way,” Oz said at a White House briefing.
The new guidelines only briefly address alcohol, urging readers to “consume less alcohol for better health” and to abstain if pregnant, using certain medicines or experiencing or having a familiar history of addiction
The guidance revises prior calls for limiting alcohol to one drink per day for women and two drinks for men.
President Biden’s surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, previously called for alcohol to carry a warning label, claiming drinking increased the risk for “at least seven types of cancer,” including breast, colon and liver.
Alcohol use is linked to the development of many types of cancer, even with moderate use, and heavy drinking is well-known to impact the heart and liver.
“Even light drinkers can be at increased risk of some cancers,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
“For example, women who have just one drink per day have a higher risk of breast cancer than those who have less than one drink a week, and risk is increased even more in heavy drinkers and binge drinkers.”
The institute says light drinkers are 1.8 times more likely to develop throat and mouth cancers and 1.3 times more likely to develop esophageal cancer than non-drinkers.
Moderate to heavy drinkers are between 1.2 and 1.5 times more likely to develop colorectal cancer and heavy drinkers are twice as likely to develop liver cancer, according to the Cancer Institute.
But Oz pointed to the so-called “Blue Zones” around the world that record exceptional life expectancy, such as Okinawa in Japan and Sardinia in Italy.
“You look at the Blue Zones, for example, around the world, where people live the longest. Alcohol is sometimes part of their diet,” Oz said. “Again, small amounts.”
“There is alcohol on these dietary guidelines, but the implication is don’t have it for breakfast,” Oz said.
“The general move away from two glasses for men, one glass for women — there was never really good data to support that quantity of alcohol consumption.”
