Contrary to our ingrained habit of enjoying a glass of Chardonnay on a Friday night, scientific research tells a different tale - one where our unsuspecting bottle of Cabernet has a dark side. Shattering a sobering statistic, a survey funded by the National Institutes of Health disclosed that over half of the adult population in the USA are blissfully ignorant of the fact that frequent clinking of glasses ratchets up the risk of cancer, breast cancer taking a particular hit. [1]

Logging into this web of misinformation, a segment even fantasize that switching your poison of choice might somehow make you immune from danger. Newsflash: your choice of liquor doesn’t grant you a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to cancer. [2] According to Dr. Andrew Seidenberg, a pioneer of this study, every drop of alcohol, be it wine, beer, or vodka, potentially dials up your predisposition to various types of cancer, with breast cancer leading the parade. [2]

Here’s a grim estimate - just one measly alcoholic beverage a day (equals to one standard 5-ounce glass of wine) cranks up pre-menopausal women's breast cancer risk by 5% and post-menopausal women by 9%, reveals a collaboration of 119 studies by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund. [3] So, your casual daily sip of whiskey isn't as harmless as you'd like to believe.

Drinking doesn't come with a safety harness. A stern proclamation by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2023 echoes the danger of believing in a "safe" level of alcohol consumption. [5] How can we designate a "safe" level when there's no evidence that even the minutest quantity comes without a risk of illness?

On the one hand, some research dangles the carrot of potential heart benefits with light and moderate drinking. On the flip side, other studies warn about the possible link between alcohol consumption and heart disease. [1] In this fitness gauntlet, the safest bet remains in abstaining from alcohol altogether, given the established cancer risks. [9]

But are we listening? Flash a look at the USA, where women are breaking their own records in terms of alcohol consumption, with an alarming boost in binge drinking and high-intensity drinking, especially among women in their late twenties/early thirties. [10] [11] [12]

Yet, there's a silver lining to this grim tale. While alcohol consumption cranks up the breast cancer risk, steering clear of it diminishes the risk. [13] Add to that vigorous exercise and a diet rich in plants, legumes, nuts, and fish (aka the Mediterranean Diet), and you have a risk-lowering recipe for breast cancer. [3] [14]

Wrap this up with the American Cancer Society’s admonitory advice: if you can't resist the call of the cocktail, limit it to a single drink a day for women. [9] Just because that Cabernet is beckoning, doesn't mean you have to answer. Remember, a whiff of prevention could save you a bucketload of cure.