Experts reveal if drinking wine or beer is better than other alcoholic drinks; share strategies to drink wisely

Drinking alcohol, especially in higher amounts, increases the risk of various cancers and other diseases. Experts recommend choosing drinks with lower ABV.

Is there an alcohol that is less risky than others? When you are hanging out with friends or colleagues and get offered a drink, would drinking wine be a better option than any other liquor or beer? According to experts, alcohol is bad news, no matter what you drink. You can lessen the harm and adapt strategies while drinking to minimise the bad effects, but there will still be bad effects of drinking.

When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a really nasty substance called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, an expert said. (Shutterstock)

Drinking any alcohol is bad for your health

Several health experts told the New York Times that drinking any type of alcohol, in any amount, is bad for health. Timothy Stockwell, an alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada, told the publication, “When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a really nasty substance called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA.”

In general, beer has less ethanol than wine per ounce, and wine has less than liquors like vodka and tequila. (Unsplash)

Per Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, this is why drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing seven types of cancer. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some studies show that drinking three or more drinks that contain alcohol per day increases the risk of stomach and pancreatic cancers. Drinking alcohol may also increase prostate cancer risk. All kinds of drinks that contain alcohol increase the risk of cancer.

Dr Keyes stated that ‘if there is more ethanol in your drink, the more harmful it is’. The expert told NYT that the same can be assed by looking at a drink’s alcohol by volume, or ABV, which manufacturers must list on product labels. “If you’re choosing between two beers of the same size, for instance, and one is 4 percent ABV and the other is 8 percent, the 4 percent beer will expose you to half as much ethanol. In general, beer has less ethanol than wine per ounce, and wine has less than liquors like vodka and tequila,” they said. 

Strategies to drink wisely

Experts told the NYT that a good strategy for reducing the bad effects of alcohol is to generally choose drinks with lower ABVs. Dr Peng-Sheng (Brian) Ting, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine, said, “It can be tricky to calculate the ABV of cocktails, since they are often made with sodas, juices and sometimes multiple types of alcohol.” He recommended having wine or beer, so you know how much ethanol you’re consuming.

Dr Keyes also recommended against consuming alcoholic drinks that are mixed with caffeine. “The energy boost you get from them may make you feel less inebriated than you really are, potentially prompting you to drink more and to become more drunk,” Dr Keyes said.