Alcohol and Non-Alcoholic Drinks (Zero-Alcohol Beer, Wine and Spirits)

• 71% of individuals aged 15 or older report consuming alcohol during the past 12 months. This is a 2-point decrease from 2024 (73%).
• Over three-quarters (78%) of men report drinking alcohol in the past 12 months, compared to 74% of women.
• 35% of people drink at least once a week. This is down 3 points from 2023 (38%).
• 20% drink multiple times per week – a slight decrease from 2023 (21%).
• 26% of the population are binge drinkers on a typical drinking occasion (i.e. drink at least standard 6 units of alcohol). This is 4-points down from the first wave in 2015 (30%).
• Men are more likely than women to binge drink (40% and 12% respectively), with younger people more likely to do so than older people (15-24 year olds: 36%, 75+ year olds: 7%).
• 25% of the population said that they drink non-alcoholic beer, wine or spirits.
• 56% of people who drink non-alcoholic drinks said they do so when they need to drive home. 29% said they drink them to reduce alcohol consumption for health reasons and 16% said they do when they need to get up early the next day and don’t want a hangover. 13% said they drink non-alcoholic drinks because they prefer them to regular alcoholic drinks.

Harms of Alcohol

• 20% of the population are at risk of hazardous or harmful drinking. Of these, 18% have AUDIT scores between 8 to 15, 1% have scores between 16 to 19 indicating higher risk and a further 1% have scores of 20 or more, indicating a possible alcohol dependence.
• Men (29%) are more likely than women (11%) to be at risk of hazardous drinking (i.e. AUDIT score of 8 or higher). People aged 15 to 24 have the highest rate of hazardous drinking for both men (39%) and women (25%).
• People educated with a degree or higher (17%) are less likely to be at risk of hazardous drinking, whereas people educated to upper secondary level (25%) are more likely to.
• Students (46%) are more likely to be at risk of hazardous drinking, whereas those engaged in home duties (7%) and people in retirement (10%) are less likely to.
• 36% of people (51% of drinkers) drink alcohol at a harmful level. Men (47%) are more likely than women (25%) to drink at a harmful level.
• As with overall alcohol consumption, harmful drinking rates have decreased for both men and women since 2015. However, this decrease is not equally shared across all ages or genders. For instance, while both men and women aged 25 to 34 saw a considerable decrease in harmful drinking rates (22-points down for men and 13-points down for women), among those aged 15-24 there is an 8-point increase for women and no change for men in this age group.

How does alcohol impact your health?

Studies show that alcohol consumption not only has a detrimental effect on your overall health, but increases your risk of a wide variety of cancer.

These cancers include:

  • Mouth, head and neck cancers,
  • Throat (pharynx) cancer
  • Voice box (larynx) cancer
  • Oesophageal cancer
  • Liver cancer
  • Colon and rectum cancer
  • Breast cancer

To help reduce your risk, it has been recommended that you do not drink, but if you do, to reduce the amount you are drinking to ensure you stay within standard drinking guidelines.

If you reduce the number of drinks per day from four or more, to one or fewer drinks each day, you can reduce your chances of getting:

  • Liver cancer by 21%
  • Colorectal cancer by 31%
  • Breast cancer in women by 30%.

Aside from cancer, alcohol can also contribute to accidents and injuries, stroke, high blood pressure, liver disease and pancreatitis. Cutting down could help reduce the risk of these conditions as well.

Also, drinking less can help you:

  • Avoid hangovers
  • Save money
  • Sleep better
  • Cut out some ‘empty’ calories.

How does alcohol affect your body?

There are two main ways alcohol can have an impact on your health. 

  1. Cell Damage:

Alcohol can act as an irritant, especially in the mouth and throat. Cells that are damaged by the alcohol may try to repair themselves but these cells can repair incorrectly, which could lead to DNA changes that can be a step toward cancer.

Once in the body, alcohol can be converted into acetaldehyde, a chemical that can damage the DNA inside cells and has been shown to cause cancer.

Drinking alcohol can also lead to oxidative stress in cells, causing them to create more reactive oxygen species (chemically reactive molecules that contain oxygen). These can lead to damage inside the cells that might increase the risk of cancer.

Alcohol and its by-products can also damage the liver, leading to inflammation and scarring (cirrhosis). As liver cells try to repair the damage, they can end up with mistakes in their DNA, which could lead to cancer. 

  1. Increase the impact of other harmful chemicals:

Alcohol may help other harmful chemicals, such as those in tobacco smoke, enter the cells lining the upper digestive tract more easily. This might explain why the combination of smoking and drinking is much more likely to cause cancers in the mouth or throat than smoking or drinking alone.

In other cases, alcohol may slow the body’s ability to break down and get rid of some harmful chemicals.

Alcohol guidelines

Ethanol is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic drinks, whether they are beers, wines, liquors (distilled spirits), or other drinks. Alcoholic drinks contain different percentages of ethanol, but in general, a standard size drink of any type — 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor — contains about the same amount of ethanol (about half an ounce). Of course, larger or ‘stronger’ drinks can contain more ethanol than this.

Overall, the amount of alcohol someone drinks over time, not the type of alcoholic beverage, seems to be the most important factor in raising cancer risk. Most evidence suggests that it is the ethanol that increases the risk, not other things in the drink.

To reduce your risk of cancer, and to keep health risks to a minimum, women should drink no more than 11 standard drinks a week. Men should drink no more than 17 standard drinks a week.

Be aware of how many standard drinks are in your favourite drink. For example, there are two standard drinks in a pint.  And remember these drink guidelines are a limit, not a target.

These guidelines are intended for adults only. When considering these guidelines, it is important to remember that drinks should be spaced out over the week and should never be saved up to drink in one session. 

When it comes to alcohol and cancer, less is better. None is best.

What is a standard drink?

One standard drink of alcohol is:

  • A half pint of beer, lager or stout
  • One small glass of wine (100ml)
  • One measure of spirits.

As a rough guide, a standard drink contains about 10-12 grams of pure alcohol. However, some restaurants and bars serve larger drinks than the standard. Also, there are differences in the size and strength of a standard drink across European countries.

You should avoid alcohol:

  • During pregnancy
  • While breast-feeding
  • When trying for a baby.

How to cut back on alcohol

There are a number of easy things you can do to cut back on the amount of alcohol you drink

Drink slowly

Sip your drinks and wait until you've finished one before you order another

Go out later

Go out later and bring less money with you

Order smaller drinks

A glass rather than a bottle or pint, a single measure rather than a double

Avoid buying rounds

If you can't, buy yourself a non-alcoholic drink when it's your round

Use a standard measure

At home, use a standard measure for sprits, rather than pouring 'freehand'

Guidelines

Stick to low level guidelines for men and women and keep at least 2 days per week alcohol free

Keep track

There are lots of other simple ways to start cutting down. For many people, simply tracking how much you drink can be an eye opener – there are lots of free apps and tools available for your phone or tablet.

And if you’re drinking in a group, if you stay out of large rounds you won’t have to match anyone else’s pace. You can also more easily avoid being cajoled into having a drink that you don’t really want.

Learn more about how alcohol increases your risk of cancer here

Kindly supported by:

DONATE