New more stringent alcohol-use guidelines have been released and the guidance comes down to this:

Any reduction in drinking helps. The more you drink, the higher the risks. And preferably, consume no more than 2 drinks on a given day.

The advice comes from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and presents a sequence of health risks associated with different amounts of alcohol, including the risks of several types of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

One to two standard drinks a week is considered low risk and that risk increases with greater amounts of consumption.

Doctor Kara Thompson is among the researchers involved in the new guidance and wants to see the federal government implement new labelling on bottles.

“In particular, what we’re advocating for, is that alcohol containers contain the number of standard drinks, so the number of drinks that are in each beverage container, so that Canadians know how many drinks they’re having, as well as these health warnings along with direction to more information on drinking,” Thompson explained to CP24.

Reaction is swift from Canada’s alcohol industry saying warning labels about health risks on bottles containing alcohol are unnecessary.

The president of Beer Canada says the industry already informs people to drink responsibly using voluntary health warning labels or pictographs on packaging dealing with warnings against drinking while pregnant and driving while intoxicated.