Tournée Minérale aims for no alcohol for a month, preferably longer. But even without Tournée Minérale, there is a guideline, an advice for drinking alcohol more or less responsibly. And that limit is being lower and lower.
Only a few years ago, 21 standard glasses of beer or wine per week for a man and 14 standard glasses for a woman was acceptable. Now it is no more than 10 standard glasses of beer or wine per week, for both women and men (a standard glass corresponds to 10 grams of pure alcohol, ed). That is the guideline of the VAD (Flemish Expertise Centre for Alcohol and other Drugs). If you drink more, it falls into the category of risky alcohol consumption.
**Compromise between science and society**
Ten glasses, then, but science is stricter: as little alcohol as possible, preferably 2 rather than 10 glasses per week. That the threshold for (un)healthy alcohol consumption is still at 10 standard glasses per week is the result of a compromise between science and society. “Alcohol consumption is socially accepted. Alcohol is therefore the most widely used legal drug in Flanders and Belgium. It has become part of our culture, although it is not a harmless product,” we read at the VAD.
“Alcohol first numbs the parts of the brain that control behaviour and feelings,” writes the VAD. “Thus, a small amount of alcohol creates a bolder, active feeling. A larger amount reduces responsiveness. Even more alcohol reduces movement control and coordination ability.” In addition, the VAD indicates that alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for accidents and injuries.
To reduce the risks of alchol consumption, it is best not to drink more than 10 standard glasses per week, says the VAD. But one in six (15 to 20 per cent) report drinking more than 10 glasses of alcohol per week. Among young people, alcohol consumption seems to be on the decline. According to a study by the VAD, one in five 17-18-year-olds never drink. This is not the case among older people: it is mostly 45-year-olds who drink more than 10 glasses a week.
**”Alcohol is toxic, toxic and toxic”**
“Three arguments for not drinking: alcohol is toxic, toxic and toxic. It is a poison.” So says Hans Van Vlierberghe, liver specialist at Ghent University Hospital. “When it comes to smoking, there is no discussion. Smoking kills,” says Van Vlierberghe. “Alcohol too is harmful, but the discussion is different because alcohol is part of society.”
Van Vlierberghe is formal: alcohol is a poison that keeps affecting your liver until you get fatal cirrhosis of the liver. But the other organs also suffer because it causes inflammatory reactions that can increase the risk of tumours in the long run.
Can a glass of wine increase your risk of cancer?
For smoking, it is clear: it is harmful and it causes lung cancer. For alcohol, it is less clear. Science has not figured out exactly what role alcohol plays in the development of certain cancers; controversy remains around it. Cancer, then, is complex. Genes, bad luck, exercise or not, diet, your weight… these are all factors that can play a role.
“Drinking alcohol is generally less carcinogenic than smoking. But alcohol can give you liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. That link is very clear. Alcohol also plays a role in oesophageal, throat, breast and a number of other cancers. For other cancers, the link with alcohol is less clear,” says Eric Van Cutsem, digestive oncologist at UZ Leuven and president of the Foundation Against Cancer.
**What advice does an oncologist give?**
Liver specialist Van Vlierberghe does believe that alcohol is one of the factors influencing the development of cancer, even in small quantities. Oncologist Van Cutsem is somewhat more cautious. Because, according to him, scientific consensus is lacking on the amount of alcohol and for which cancers exactly. His advice, and that of the Foundation Against Cancer:
– Limit alcohol!
– No more than 2 glasses a day
– 5 to 10 glasses per week are a maximum
– Don’t drink every day, it’s better for your liver and metabolism
– Higher age limit for young people
One in three young people have drunk alcohol before the age of 14 (according to VAD figures). Alcohol acts on the brain, relaxing it and making it less anxious. Young people are more vulnerable to alcohol because their brains are not yet fully developed, which does not happen until they are 25. Starting alcohol very young (before the age of 16) increases the risk of addiction later.
Young people can buy beer and wine from 16, liquor from 18. Liver specialist Van Vlierberghe suggests raising that age limit to 18 and 21. “Alcohol has an impact on the brain. It is important not to introduce young people to alcohol too early. Raising the age limit is not only scientifically better, it also sends a clear message to young people that alcohol is harmful.” VAD also wants to raise that age limit.
**Raising awareness**
For the seventh year in a row already, the VAD and De Druglijn are organising an alcohol-free month under the name “Tournée Minérale”. Each time, the message is the same: “Don’t drink alcohol in February, and notice that you feel better about yourself as a result”. Awareness, then, of the risks of alcohol and that it is possible to do without it.
**Are you concerned about your alcohol consumption or that of someone around you? If so, you can contact your GP. If you prefer anonymity, you can contact De Druglijn for initial tailor-made advice. For online help and counselling you can also go to http://www.alcoholhulp.be, an initiative of the Flemish government. At Tele-Onthaal, you can call anonymously and free of charge 24 hours a day on telephone number 106 or chat via http://www.tele-onthaal.be.**
> Young people can buy beer and wine from 16, liquor from 18. Liver specialist Van Vlierberghe suggests raising that age limit to 18 and 21.
Another good step would be to actually check the age of people when buying alcohol imo.
It remains a funny tidbit that it’s the shortest month of the year.
It’s medically so obvious that any amount of alcohol is bad for you. I like how society can’t seem to accept this and is basically doings bargaining. ”x number of glasses a week is beneficial to your health” lmao.
Ok what amount of coke/heroin/marihuana is beneficial to your health? Alcohol is just like any other drug but a socially accepted one. No problem with people who drink alcohol but stop kidding yourself. Admit it’s a bad habit.
No alcohol is obviously healthier than some. It’s just that the beer brewers are better at lobbying than tobacco companies.
> “Drie argumenten om niet te drinken: alcohol is toxisch, toxisch en toxisch. Het is een vergif.” Dat zegt Hans Van Vlierberghe, leverspecialist aan het UZ Gent. “Als het over roken gaat, dan is er geen discussie. Roken is dodelijk”, zegt Van Vlierberghe. “Ook alcohol is schadelijk, maar de discussie is anders omdat alcohol deel uitmaakt van de maatschappij.”
/thread
Started my dry month 9 days ago, life without alcohol sucks even if I smoke weed in the evening.
While I agree we should watch our health, as I do, I loathe this tendency of forbidding everything.
Like I stopped smoking, who cares if someone is smoking on the beach or vaping on a terrace if they have a minimum of manners and don’t blow in your face.
Prevention is cool but way too many people want to impose their standard, it’s illiberal.
If you want to feel depressed about your alcohol use or motivated to lower it, I suggest the Huberman Lab Podcast on alcohol.
I truly believe that he researched the topic for the podcast to give an objective overview (like he always does) and just didn’t find many positives.
Just two simple facts:
– Two glasses or more a week on average will chronically elevate your cortisol (stress) levels. Also on the days you’re not drinking.
– If a drink contains a substance that might be good, it will always be in such low quantities that the alcohol you consume with it wil easily offset any positive effects.
7 comments
Tournée Minérale aims for no alcohol for a month, preferably longer. But even without Tournée Minérale, there is a guideline, an advice for drinking alcohol more or less responsibly. And that limit is being lower and lower.
Only a few years ago, 21 standard glasses of beer or wine per week for a man and 14 standard glasses for a woman was acceptable. Now it is no more than 10 standard glasses of beer or wine per week, for both women and men (a standard glass corresponds to 10 grams of pure alcohol, ed). That is the guideline of the VAD (Flemish Expertise Centre for Alcohol and other Drugs). If you drink more, it falls into the category of risky alcohol consumption.
**Compromise between science and society**
Ten glasses, then, but science is stricter: as little alcohol as possible, preferably 2 rather than 10 glasses per week. That the threshold for (un)healthy alcohol consumption is still at 10 standard glasses per week is the result of a compromise between science and society. “Alcohol consumption is socially accepted. Alcohol is therefore the most widely used legal drug in Flanders and Belgium. It has become part of our culture, although it is not a harmless product,” we read at the VAD.
“Alcohol first numbs the parts of the brain that control behaviour and feelings,” writes the VAD. “Thus, a small amount of alcohol creates a bolder, active feeling. A larger amount reduces responsiveness. Even more alcohol reduces movement control and coordination ability.” In addition, the VAD indicates that alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for accidents and injuries.
To reduce the risks of alchol consumption, it is best not to drink more than 10 standard glasses per week, says the VAD. But one in six (15 to 20 per cent) report drinking more than 10 glasses of alcohol per week. Among young people, alcohol consumption seems to be on the decline. According to a study by the VAD, one in five 17-18-year-olds never drink. This is not the case among older people: it is mostly 45-year-olds who drink more than 10 glasses a week.
**”Alcohol is toxic, toxic and toxic”**
“Three arguments for not drinking: alcohol is toxic, toxic and toxic. It is a poison.” So says Hans Van Vlierberghe, liver specialist at Ghent University Hospital. “When it comes to smoking, there is no discussion. Smoking kills,” says Van Vlierberghe. “Alcohol too is harmful, but the discussion is different because alcohol is part of society.”
Van Vlierberghe is formal: alcohol is a poison that keeps affecting your liver until you get fatal cirrhosis of the liver. But the other organs also suffer because it causes inflammatory reactions that can increase the risk of tumours in the long run.
Can a glass of wine increase your risk of cancer?
For smoking, it is clear: it is harmful and it causes lung cancer. For alcohol, it is less clear. Science has not figured out exactly what role alcohol plays in the development of certain cancers; controversy remains around it. Cancer, then, is complex. Genes, bad luck, exercise or not, diet, your weight… these are all factors that can play a role.
“Drinking alcohol is generally less carcinogenic than smoking. But alcohol can give you liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. That link is very clear. Alcohol also plays a role in oesophageal, throat, breast and a number of other cancers. For other cancers, the link with alcohol is less clear,” says Eric Van Cutsem, digestive oncologist at UZ Leuven and president of the Foundation Against Cancer.
**What advice does an oncologist give?**
Liver specialist Van Vlierberghe does believe that alcohol is one of the factors influencing the development of cancer, even in small quantities. Oncologist Van Cutsem is somewhat more cautious. Because, according to him, scientific consensus is lacking on the amount of alcohol and for which cancers exactly. His advice, and that of the Foundation Against Cancer:
– Limit alcohol!
– No more than 2 glasses a day
– 5 to 10 glasses per week are a maximum
– Don’t drink every day, it’s better for your liver and metabolism
– Higher age limit for young people
One in three young people have drunk alcohol before the age of 14 (according to VAD figures). Alcohol acts on the brain, relaxing it and making it less anxious. Young people are more vulnerable to alcohol because their brains are not yet fully developed, which does not happen until they are 25. Starting alcohol very young (before the age of 16) increases the risk of addiction later.
Young people can buy beer and wine from 16, liquor from 18. Liver specialist Van Vlierberghe suggests raising that age limit to 18 and 21. “Alcohol has an impact on the brain. It is important not to introduce young people to alcohol too early. Raising the age limit is not only scientifically better, it also sends a clear message to young people that alcohol is harmful.” VAD also wants to raise that age limit.
**Raising awareness**
For the seventh year in a row already, the VAD and De Druglijn are organising an alcohol-free month under the name “Tournée Minérale”. Each time, the message is the same: “Don’t drink alcohol in February, and notice that you feel better about yourself as a result”. Awareness, then, of the risks of alcohol and that it is possible to do without it.
**Are you concerned about your alcohol consumption or that of someone around you? If so, you can contact your GP. If you prefer anonymity, you can contact De Druglijn for initial tailor-made advice. For online help and counselling you can also go to http://www.alcoholhulp.be, an initiative of the Flemish government. At Tele-Onthaal, you can call anonymously and free of charge 24 hours a day on telephone number 106 or chat via http://www.tele-onthaal.be.**
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
——-
> Young people can buy beer and wine from 16, liquor from 18. Liver specialist Van Vlierberghe suggests raising that age limit to 18 and 21.
Another good step would be to actually check the age of people when buying alcohol imo.
It remains a funny tidbit that it’s the shortest month of the year.
It’s medically so obvious that any amount of alcohol is bad for you. I like how society can’t seem to accept this and is basically doings bargaining. ”x number of glasses a week is beneficial to your health” lmao.
Ok what amount of coke/heroin/marihuana is beneficial to your health? Alcohol is just like any other drug but a socially accepted one. No problem with people who drink alcohol but stop kidding yourself. Admit it’s a bad habit.
No alcohol is obviously healthier than some. It’s just that the beer brewers are better at lobbying than tobacco companies.
> “Drie argumenten om niet te drinken: alcohol is toxisch, toxisch en toxisch. Het is een vergif.” Dat zegt Hans Van Vlierberghe, leverspecialist aan het UZ Gent. “Als het over roken gaat, dan is er geen discussie. Roken is dodelijk”, zegt Van Vlierberghe. “Ook alcohol is schadelijk, maar de discussie is anders omdat alcohol deel uitmaakt van de maatschappij.”
/thread
Started my dry month 9 days ago, life without alcohol sucks even if I smoke weed in the evening.
While I agree we should watch our health, as I do, I loathe this tendency of forbidding everything.
Like I stopped smoking, who cares if someone is smoking on the beach or vaping on a terrace if they have a minimum of manners and don’t blow in your face.
Prevention is cool but way too many people want to impose their standard, it’s illiberal.
If you want to feel depressed about your alcohol use or motivated to lower it, I suggest the Huberman Lab Podcast on alcohol.
I truly believe that he researched the topic for the podcast to give an objective overview (like he always does) and just didn’t find many positives.
Just two simple facts:
– Two glasses or more a week on average will chronically elevate your cortisol (stress) levels. Also on the days you’re not drinking.
– If a drink contains a substance that might be good, it will always be in such low quantities that the alcohol you consume with it wil easily offset any positive effects.