Drinking a little alcohol every day has no health benefits, new study finds 

A new study suggests that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol every day does not lead to health benefits, despite decades of scientific studies claiming the opposite. 

For years, studies suggested that moderate drinking was good for people’s health and could even help them live longer. However, a new review published in KAMA Network Open analyzed more than 40 years of research and concluded that many of those studies were flawed. 

The study found that women who drink 25 grams of alcohol a day—less than two cocktails with 1.5 ounces of liquor, two 12-ounce beers, or two glasses of wine—have a higher risk of dying prematurely. Similarly, the risk increases for men who consume 45 grams of alcohol a day. 

The review analyzed more than 100 previous studies published between 1980 and 2021 to correct methodical problems that are found in several older observational studies. The studies, according to the authors, identified links or associations that did not necessarily prove a cause and effect. 

Once corrected for these errors, “the supposed health benefits of drinking shrink dramatically, and become non-statistically significant,” said Tim Stockwell, a scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research who was one of the authors of the report. 

Older studies did not recognize that light and moderate drinkers followed other healthy habits that helped them to remain healthy, the study suggests. Moderate drinkers tend to be moderate in all ways, including a healthy diet, scientists say. 

“When you compare this unhealthy group to those who go on drinking, it makes the current drinkers look more healthy and like they have lower mortality,” said Stockwell.

"We just need to be very skeptical of scientific evidence or scientific studies suggesting there are health benefits," Stockwell added.