Drinking guidelines are an important tool to give the public evidence-based information on the risks associated with drinking alcohol. This is particularly important given strong emerging evidence that even low levels of alcohol consumption increase the risk of seven different types of cancer.

While Aotearoa New Zealand has low-risk drinking guidelines provided through Health New Zealand, these have not been updated since 2011 and are out of date.

NZ guidelines remain among the highest in developed countries. Other countries, including Canada, has developed much more up-to-date guidelines that put low-risk drinking at much lower levels.

Consumers have a right to information to make informed decisions. This is why Alcohol Healthwatch are providing alternative guidelines below (taken from the most up-to-date Canadian guidelines) to help provide New Zealanders with contemporary information about low-risk drinking. This is information the alcohol industry would rather you didn’t know.

The above information has been taken from the Canadian guidelines. More information can be found here.

Want to find out your health risks, costs and calories from drinking alcohol? Check out this calculator based on the most up-to-date evidence here.

Information on the Australian guidelines (revised in 2020) can be found here.