One glass of wine or beer a day may actually be GOOD for you and the health risks are ‘exaggerated’, says world-renowned scientist

Links between moderate alcohol consumption and early death have been ‘exaggerated’, according to a world-renowned data scientist.

Statistically speaking, the risk you run to your life expectancy by drinking one beer or wine a day is no greater than driving a car or eating bacon, according to Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician University of Cambridge.

Many health organizations are moving toward drier public health policies – World Health Organization has said that there is no safe amount of alcohol to drink.

But Sir Spiegelhalter told the BBC: ‘Frankly, I get irritated when the dangers of low alcohol levels are exaggerated, especially when claims are made like ‘no amount of alcohol is safe.’

“I don’t think there’s any evidence to support it, but there’s also no safe level of driving, no safe level of living, and no one is recommending abstinence.”

He said research showed that drinking small amounts actually has health benefits.

WHO researchers warned that alcohol use is one of the leading risk factors for premature death and disability, with younger people disproportionately affected.

Over the past decade, the tide has turned against alcohol.

A major study from the University of Oxford, published in June 2023, found that regular alcohol consumption could be linked to more than 60 diseases, including cancer, diabetes, gout and cataracts.

That same year, Canadian health authorities published new alcohol consumption guidelines for the country based on their review of the research, limiting it to just two drinks per week.

Dr Tim Stockwell, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research who was part of the panel that drew up the new guidelines, told the BBC: “The evidence increasingly suggests that alcohol offers no benefits and is in fact a risky substance.”

Last year, US officials told DailyMail.com that they were considering adjusting alcohol guidelines to a maximum of two beers per week by 2025.

It is true that drinking large amounts of alcohol every day is bad for your health, says Sir Spiegelhalter.

But the average person is more of a moderate drinker – one or two drinks a day – and at that level of drinking, Sir Spiegelhalter says, research shows the health effects are very small.

Whatever the risks [of having one or two drinks a day] We know that they are indeed very low. And we also know that they are incredibly difficult to estimate.’

He called the Canadian guidelines “completely unnecessary. I think this is addressing a non-problem.”

Telling people who already drink little to drink less can make them distrustful of public health authorities in general.

Moreover, he said, the argument for avoiding alcohol for health reasons often ignores a crucial aspect of alcohol: It brings people joy.

Statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter said guidelines restricting moderate drinking are often overblown

Sir Spiegelhalter said there are even ‘benefits to drinking little to moderate alcohol, and that is never mentioned in these discussions.’

These benefits are primarily social. People use alcohol to reduce anxiety when they are socializing, or as an excuse to meet up with friends they haven’t seen in a while.

Sometimes people just like it and enjoy a glass of wine with a steak.

“I think we just have to accept that people drink for a reason: they enjoy it,” Sir Spiegelhalter said.

That’s not to say he’s in favour of no guidelines at all. He said the current guidelines set in the UK by their National Health Service are ideal.

This includes drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol per week. For example, that would be 14 shots of spirits or six medium glasses of wine or pints of beer.

This is similar to the current recommendations in the US – which says that men should have two or fewer drinks per day and women one or less.

According to Sir Spiegelhalter, there is still a risk at that level of consumption, but it is about the same as the risk associated with watching an hour of TV a day or eating two bacon sandwiches a week.

People still choose to do things that put their health at risk, such as eating fatty and salty foods like bacon.

Dr Spiegelhalter said: ‘These seem to be acutely acceptable voluntary risks that people take in their lives. People are adults. They can make their own decisions about this.’