ADULTS where we live are advised not to drink above 14 units of alcohol per week, which should be spread across three or more days.  

A pint of lower strength (3-4%) beer like Carling and Coors will have around two units.  An alcopop like wicked (WKD) has around 1.1 units at a 275ml bottle.  A 175ml glass of 12 per cent wine has 2.1 units with a shot (25mls) of 40 per cent spirits also containing around one.  

It is important to note that these 14 units should not be stored up for a binge drinking session at the weekend.  In a practical context for 14 units being spread across three days, this would be equivalent to 2.3 pints of Carling on three days of the week. It is very important to note that too much alcohol increases the risk of liver, oesophageal, bowel and breast cancers.  

Too much alcohol being converted to ethanol in the liver produces cancer causing compounds. It can also affect vitamin B6 and B9 levels in the body. I’ve seen articles questionable online saying that red wine reduces cancer risk.  Red wine is made with grapes and contains antioxidant chemicals like resveratrol.  Antioxidant plant chemicals can protect the body from things called free radicals that can come from air pollutants (cigarette smoke, radiation, metal etc) and can cause disease in our bodies like cancer.  

Resveratrol is considered a potential candidate for the prevention and treatment of several types of cancer which are confirmed by animal studies as well as human cell studies.  But these studies are weak evidence and human studies are needed before adequate conclusions can be drawn to humans and cancer risk.  

Even more important, red wine only contains small amounts of resveratrol and you would need to drink a lot of red wine to achieve a sufficient amount of this. Firstly, this is reckless as it would conflict with public health policy in going above 14 units per week, and secondly, this would probably increase cancer risk due to too much ethanol conversion in the liver.  It’s probably fair to say that it is safer just taking grapes for your resveratrol and this would also boost your five portions of fruit and veg per day. This is definitely a safer bet so don’t believe pseudoscientific claims seen online.  

Lee McCusker (BA; MSc; MSc; MSc; ANutr; SENr) is a registered nutritionist from Belfast and can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Email: attentivenutrition @gmail.com