For decades, we’ve been told that moderate drinking, particularly red wine, might be good for us. A glass with dinner was considered heart-healthy, even protective. But recent scientific research has fundamentally challenged this belief. The emerging consensus among leading health experts is clear and unambiguous: no amount of alcohol is beneficial or healthy.

The Myth of the “Healthy Drink”

Dr. Peter Attia, a longevity expert who conducted an extensive 20-page research analysis on alcohol, puts it bluntly: “There is no compelling evidence whatsoever that there is a health benefit that comes from ethanol consumption. The molecule of ethanol is not healthy at any dose. And I believe that is unambiguously true.”

For years, studies seemed to show that moderate drinkers lived longer than non-drinkers, creating what researchers call the “J-shaped curve”, where mortality appeared lowest at moderate drinking levels. But as Dr. Sarah Wakeman, a Harvard professor and addiction expert explains, this research was fundamentally flawed.

“What they realized was wrong with that is that in the people who don’t drink at all, many of those people are not drinking because they’re actually really unhealthy,” Dr. Wakeman notes. Many non-drinkers had already stopped due to existing health conditions or previous alcohol damage. When researchers adjusted their studies to compare drinkers with people who drink very rarely rather than complete abstainers, “those health benefits of alcohol go away.”

When asked directly if there’s any healthy level of alcohol consumption, Dr. Wakeman’s answer is unequivocal: “Yes. I would never say drinking alcohol is good for your health.”

How Alcohol Damages Your Body

Cancer Risk: More Dangerous Than You Think

Perhaps the most alarming revelation is alcohol’s strong link to cancer. Globally, 2.6 million people die every year from alcohol-related causes, with cancer being a major contributor.

The cancer risk begins at shockingly low consumption levels. According to Dr. Wakeman, even drinking within the UK’s “low-risk” guidelines (below 14 units per week), your breast cancer risk increases by about 5%. For women in the U.S., who already have a 13% lifetime risk of breast cancer, this seemingly small increase is significant.

But moderate to heavy drinking carries far worse risks. “If you’re drinking two of those glasses [of wine], we’re talking like a 40% increase in cancer risk depending on the cancer type,” Dr. Wakeman warns.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick emphasizes the severity: “Alcohol is now classified as a group one carcinogen. It’s known to play a role in causing cancer. There’s no gray area here.” For women particularly, moderate alcohol consumption can increase lifetime breast cancer risk from one in eight to one in six.

How Alcohol Causes Cancer

When you drink alcohol (ethanol), your body treats it as a toxin and immediately works to eliminate it. In the process, it converts ethanol into acetaldehyde, a toxic molecule that damages your DNA and cells. As Dr. Wakeman explains, “That toxic molecule is going to be floating around and causing damage to your cells. So that’s one way that alcohol can cause cancer.”

The other mechanism is through widespread inflammation. “Alcohol generates a lot of that inflammation in the process of getting eliminated,” Dr. Wakeman notes. This chronic inflammation changes cells over time, significantly increasing cancer risk.

Alcohol is linked to numerous cancers including:

• Breast cancer (even at low consumption levels)
• Esophageal cancer (even at low levels)
• Colon cancer
• Liver cancer
• Mouth and throat cancers (especially when combined with smoking)

Brain Damage: Accelerated Aging

The effects on your brain are equally disturbing. Heavy alcohol use accelerates brain shrinkage to a shocking degree. Dr. Wakeman showed brain scans of a 43-year-old with severe alcohol use disorder whose brain “looks the way a 90-year-old with dementia would look because of that brain damage over time from alcohol use.”

Even moderate drinking affects the brain. Ethanol crosses the blood-brain barrier easily, essentially “bathing your brain” in this toxic substance. Over time, this leads to inflammation and cellular damage that can result in alcohol-related dementia.

Liver Disease: Silent and Deadly

Your liver processes 90% of the alcohol you consume, making it particularly vulnerable. The progression is insidious:

1. Fat deposits in the liver (fatty liver disease)
2. Inflammation (alcoholic hepatitis)
3. Scar tissue (fibrosis)
4. Complete liver failure (cirrhosis)

What’s especially concerning is the unpredictability. “There are people who’ve been drinking for 60 years and their livers don’t show signs of scarring. And then we’re seeing these young people at 25 who come in and die in the hospital,” Dr. Wakeman explains. Individual factors that you can’t know make some people far more vulnerable to rapid liver damage.

Gut Health Destruction

Emerging research shows alcohol’s devastating impact on your microbiome. Will Bulsiewicz, a gastroenterologist, found that blood alcohol levels and bacterial endotoxin levels (a marker of gut barrier damage) rise and fall in parallel. “Even when we’re consuming minimal amounts of alcohol, we are potentially causing problems for our gut microbes,” he concludes.

This gut damage triggers systemic inflammation that affects your entire body and may be a primary reason why hangovers take 24 hours or more to resolve.

What About “Low-Risk” Drinking?

The reality is that what most people consider moderate drinking actually qualifies as heavy drinking by medical standards.

A standard drink contains:

• 14-15 grams of ethanol
• About 3-4 ounces of wine (not the generous pours most people serve)
• 12 ounces of beer

To stay in the “low-risk” category, you need to consume:

• Fewer than 14 units per week for men
• Fewer than 7 units per week for women
• No more than 3-4 drinks on any single occasion

But as Dr. Wakeman notes, “That glass of wine, just eyeballing it, has several units of alcohol.” A typical wine glass at dinner might contain 3 units. Two glasses of wine per day places you squarely in the heavy drinking category, which is associated with a 40% increase in cancer risk.

The Social Benefits Argument

Some researchers, like Dan Buettner who studies Blue Zones (regions where people live longest), argue that the social context matters. In places like Sardinia and Ikaria, people who drink small amounts of homemade wine with meals and friends often live past 100.

However, as Dr. Attia explains, while “there might actually be enough of a pro-social benefit from that amount of ethanol if consumed in an otherwise healthy environment,” this doesn’t mean the alcohol itself is healthy. The benefits come from the social connection, not the ethanol molecule.

As Dr. Wakeman puts it: “I think of it more like having dessert, eating bacon, going out in the sun. There are risks associated with all those activities. It doesn’t mean that I would say you can never do any of that, but you need to understand what the risks are and then make choices for yourself.”

The Changing Cultural Tide

There’s good news: awareness is growing. Dr. Anna Lembke, an addiction expert at Stanford, notes “a huge sea change in the last five years where all of a sudden people seem much more aware of the dangers of alcohol, much less inclined to consume it recreationally because they’re concerned with the dangers.”

This shift is especially pronounced among younger generations who drink significantly less than their parents and grandparents.

The Bottom Line

The scientific evidence is unambiguous: alcohol is a toxic substance that increases your risk of cancer, brain damage, liver disease, and numerous other health problems. There is no safe amount, and there is certainly no amount that improves your health.

This doesn’t mean you must never drink – personal choices involve many factors beyond pure health optimization. But it does mean we should stop fooling ourselves into thinking that glass of wine is healthy. As Dr. Attia puts it, ethanol’s toxicity may be “very difficult to measure” at low doses, but “the molecule of ethanol is not healthy at any dose.”

If you choose to drink, do so with full awareness of the risks, keep amounts truly minimal, and never confuse it with a health practice. And if you’re looking to improve your health? Skip the alcohol entirely.

References

1. Dr. Sarah Wakeman, Harvard Professor and Addiction Medicine Expert – The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: “Addiction Doctor: Alcohol Rewires Your Brain“
2. Dr. Peter Attia, Longevity Expert – The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: “Anti-Aging Expert: Peter Attia“
3. Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Nutritional Scientist – The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode 819: “Protocols for Fasting, Lowering Dementia Risk, Reversing Heart Aging“
4. Dr. Anna Lembke, Addiction Expert – The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: “Dopamine Nation and the Age of Digital Drugs“
5. Dan Buettner, Blue Zones Researcher – The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: “Living for Longevity“
6. Will Bulsiewicz, Gastroenterologist – The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: “The Poo Scientist“