The Netherlands recently updated its health advice to recommend completely avoiding alcohol. According to one researcher, there’s no safe level of alcohol consumption – even a small amount can be harmful to both your own health and the well-being of others. They state that responsible or moderate drinking is a myth.
I’m not a medical professional or researcher, and I absolutely acknowledge the health risks of alcohol. However, I think it’s worth having a more detailed discussion about both the downsides and potential benefits of drinking.
It might seem natural to start discouraging alcohol use now that we’ve made progress on reducing smoking. However, as communities worldwide try to limit drinking, a challenging issue emerges: do the benefits of these health protections outweigh the freedoms or enjoyment we potentially lose?
As a movie lover, I’ve always been fascinated by how we portray habits – and alcohol often comes up. It seems trickier than tobacco because while serious alcoholism is awful and sadly common, most people who have a drink aren’t actually addicted. So why do so many of us drink? For me, it’s not about escaping something bad; it’s about what alcohol represents culturally. Around the world, we use it to mark special occasions, celebrate life, and bring people together. I really think those traditions are important and worth holding onto.
As a culture, drinking is surprisingly diverse around the globe. Unlike cigarettes, where regulations are fairly consistent, rules about alcohol really vary by country. You’ll find legal drinking ages everywhere from zero – yes, zero! – in places like Cambodia and Equatorial Guinea, up to 21 in Egypt and Sri Lanka. And it’s not just age; even where you can buy a drink differs wildly. Russia lets you pick up beer with your groceries, while Sweden keeps all alcohol sales strictly within state-run liquor stores. I was particularly fascinated to learn that Indonesia has completely different rules depending on the region – Bali is open season for drinks, but in other parts of the country, it’s totally prohibited!
People around the world view alcohol differently. In France, wine is often enjoyed with meals to complement the food—even children might have a little with dinner. In Japan, drinking together is common for work teams building relationships with their managers during after-work gatherings. And in Finland, there’s even a word – kalsarikännit – for the uniquely Finnish experience of relaxing at home, alone, and getting drunk in your underwear.
Alcohol has a long history of use in religious practices. Though some faiths, like Hinduism and Islam, limit or forbid getting drunk, others incorporate alcohol into their spiritual ceremonies. For example, it’s a key part of rituals in Haitian Voodoo and among the Yucatec Maya. In Shinto, sake is considered a drink for the gods and is offered to them before people drink it. Similarly, red wine is used by Catholics and Orthodox Christians during communion.
Even though opinions and rules about alcohol vary, the harmful effects on health remain consistent. Recent research challenges the old idea that a little alcohol is harmless or even beneficial. It now shows that any amount of alcohol – whether you drink a lot or a little, often or rarely – increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, and problems with your brain and nervous system.
Reducing health risks is both compassionate and sensible, and we can learn from the progress made in discouraging tobacco use. For example, the Netherlands saw smoking rates drop from around 25% of adults in 2014 to 17% in 2025. Each percentage point decrease saved an estimated €650 million annually, money that could be used for things like medical research or improving patient care.
With more people growing older, healthcare systems are increasingly strained, and governments often struggle to keep up with the necessary changes. This makes preventing illnesses even more important. Reducing harmful alcohol use is one part of this, as it connects to other serious public health problems as well.
Across many nations, fewer people are drinking alcohol these days, particularly younger generations. However, even as both drinking and smoking become less common, we’re seeing increases in cancers, along with other health problems like diabetes and depression – and this is especially true for young adults.
Many experts believe increasing stress, pollution, lack of exercise, and highly processed foods are major causes of this problem. Specifically, worries about job security, constant use of social media, and the pressures of modern life keep our bodies in a state of ongoing alert, which slowly weakens our immune defenses.
While drinking doesn’t actually solve stress, it can briefly make you feel less bothered by it. But enjoying alcohol in moderation can sometimes happen alongside fun and positive social experiences.
Alcohol isn’t the only way people feel more comfortable in social situations, but it’s a common one – and for a long time, society didn’t look down on its use. It can be especially helpful when you’re meeting new people or trying to make friends, which is getting harder these days as people become more focused on themselves and spend more time online.
Research suggests that as people, particularly Gen Z, drink less alcohol, feelings of loneliness may increase. Therefore, if governments continue to discourage drinking, they should also invest in ways to help people connect with others and build communities. Otherwise, rising stress levels could put a strain on healthcare services.
I don’t want to downplay the link between alcohol and serious illnesses like cancer. A close friend was recently diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer just after turning 28, which makes me deeply concerned about the broader effects of challenging our society’s widespread acceptance of drinking.
I’ve spent years worrying about getting a serious, incurable illness. I’ve tried to avoid things that might increase my risk, but often these efforts have ironically made my life worse.
I might worry about my health more than most, but I don’t think I’m alone. With all the health scares from the pandemic, ever-changing trends on social media, the growing interest in full-body scans, and things like “biohacking,” it seems like a lot of people are becoming overly focused on staying healthy.
We often treat the body like a machine we can perfect, but that’s not really how it works. No matter how carefully we try to stay healthy – or how much money we spend on it – illness can still strike unexpectedly, as happened with a friend of mine. And I’ve realized that constantly worrying about my health actually creates its own kind of stress and risk.
Look, I’m all for taking care of yourself – eating well, hitting the gym, seeing your doctor regularly. That stuff is genuinely great! But honestly, I think you should do those things because you want to feel good, not just out of some fear of something inevitably happening down the line. It’s like, enjoy the process instead of obsessing over an outcome you can’t really control.
Basically, if you spend too much time worrying about dying, you miss out on enjoying life. It’s not about being reckless, but allowing yourself small pleasures – like sharing a drink with loved ones – without feeling guilty.
2026-07-23 13:07