Nearly a year ago, I posted an article about how the French government was encouraging its citizens to stop drinking wine. This unprecedented call to action was prompted by new research showing that daily wine intake was linked to several cancers.
Now, scientists are saying that consuming wine, or any alcoholic beverage, that has a lower-alcohol content can help reduce the risk for a number of cancers, including breast cancer, liver cancer, and cancers of the mouth and larynx.
The World Cancer Research Fund, a London-based charity that raises awareness about cancer prevention, reports that approximately 20,000 cases of cancer in the United Kingdom every year are linked to alcohol. However, the group calculated that if people who regularly drank a large glass of 14% alcohol wine a day switched to a 10% alcohol aleternative, they could reduce their risk of bowel cancer by 7 percent. This is roughly a reduction from 6 people in 100 getting the disease to 5 in 100.
The researchers note that the findings are not limited to wine, but that switching to lower-alcohol liquor or beer also can have the same benefit. To reduce your risk for cancer, experts not only recommend switching to non or lower-alcohol drinks, but also limiting the number of alcoholic drinks to 2 per day for men and one for women.