Q: I have tried to reduce my alcohol consumption Lately, but I drink from time to time. Is there any less harmful alcohol than another?
If you have heard that red wine is better for you than beer or liquors, or that clear liquors such as vodka or gin are less harmful than dark liquors such as rum or whiskey, we have bad news.
“Alcohol is alcohol,” said Jürgen Rehm, head scientist of the Toronto Addiction and Mental Health Center. Drinking any type of alcohol, in any amount, is bad for health.
Even so, experts say, sometimes it is not reasonable, not even practical, that people avoid alcohol completely. So, if you are going to drink, there are some strategies that you can adopt to reduce the risk and avoid some of the other unpleasant effects of the drink, such as hangover.
Why alcohol is so harmful
When you drink, your body converts the ethanol present into alcoholic beverage into a “really unpleasant substance” called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, said Timothy Stockwell, alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria, in Canada.
Many tissues of the organism, such as those in the mouth, throat, liver, colon and breasts, are likely to suffer this damage. And when that DNA is repaired, cancerous mutations may arise.
That is why drinking increases the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer, said Katherine Keyes, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. Excessive alcohol consumption – which includes eight or more drinks a week in the case of women, or 15 or more in men; or four or more glasses for the occasion in the case of women, or five or more in that of men – it is also related to many other health conditions. Among them are heart and liver diseases, depression, anxiety and memory problems, according to disease control and prevention centers.
The more ethanol your drink contains, the more harmful it will be, Keyes said. One way to evaluate it is to look at alcohol by volume, or ABV for its acronym in English, which manufacturers must indicate on products labels. If you choose between two beers of the same size, for example, and one has 4 percent of ABV and the other 8 percent, the 4 percent beer will expose you to half ethanol.
In general, beer has less ethanol than wine on an ounce, and wine has less than liquors such as vodka and tequila, Keyes said. But there may be great variations within these categories, said Stockwell. Some strong beers, for example, have an ABV superior to that of some wines (or even that of some spirits, at the end).
How to drink wisely
A good rule to reduce your exposure to ethanol is to choose, in general, drinks with a lower VAB, experts said. But it is also important to pay attention to the amount you drink.
A normal ration of about 350 milliliters with an ABV of 5 percent usually has the same amount of ethanol as 150 milliliters of a 12 percent or 44 milliliters wine, that is, a suck of a liquor with 40 percent alcohol.
According to PEG-SHENG (Brian) Ting, Deputy Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tulane, it can be difficult to calculate the alcohol content of the cocktails, since they are often made with soft drinks, juices and, sometimes, several types of alcohol. For this reason, he recommends sticking to wine or beer in situations where you want to know exactly how much ethanol you are consuming.
Some types of alcohol also have enough calories, which consumed in excess can increase the risk of weight gain and obesity. And some cocktail mixers, such as juices and soft drinks, can contain added sugars, which also increases the risk of obesity and other conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Keyes also recommended not consuming alcoholic beverages mixed with caffeine (such as martinis with espresso or Red Bull with vodka). The rush of energy that they give you can make you feel less drunk than you really are, potentially leading you to drink more and get more, Keyes said.
And although there is no evidence that the darkest spirits are more harmful to health than the clearings, there are limited research that suggests that some darkest liquors can cause more serious hangover, said Damaris Rohsenow, a professor at the Center for Studies on Alcohol and Addictions of the Brown University. The darkest alcohols (such as the bourbon, the Ron and the Brandy) usually have higher levels of organoleptic substances, substances that are created during the fermentation process and contribute to the taste, aroma and color of a drink. More organoleptic substances often translate into worse hangover, said Rohsenoow.
However, there may be exceptions to the “clear is better” rule, Rohsenow added. Some tequilas, which can be clear or light color, for example, can have a high content of organoleptic substances and cause worse hangover.