The U.S. surgeon general wants cancer warnings on alcohol. Here’s why

Having a glass of wine a day has been often touted as a healthy choice for your heart. While there are warnings against using other substances like cigarettes, alcohol in moderation is typically considered fine — but that may be changing.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourages people to avoid large amounts of alcohol, and suggests sticking to two or fewer drinks daily for men and one or fewer drinks a day for women.

Yet, the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s newest Advisory suggests that even small amounts of alcohol could be harmful and may increase your risk of developing cancer.

“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States – greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. – yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” the Surgeon General’s Advisory states.

His Advisory points to studies that have found a clear link between alcohol consumption and a higher risk of developing seven types of cancers including breast cancer.

“We now know that there is no safe level for alcohol consumption, and that alcohol is a known carcinogen,” says Dr. Faiz Bhora, a professor of surgery and regional chair of surgery at Hackensack Meridian Health and Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

“Its mechanism of cellular damage has been well established. It causes oxidative stress and impairs DNA repair, amongst other mechanisms that lead to cell cycle dysregulation and cancer formation.”

The Surgeon General is calling for manufacturers of alcoholic beverages like beer and spirits to update warning labels to include cancer risk. Currently, beverages containing alcohol mainly warn against consumption by pregnant people and driving under the influence.

“It’s more social and political pressures that are preventing us from doing the right thing, which actually would be to put a warning label on a substance that is clearly toxic,” Bhora tells CNBC Make It.

“Shares of alcohol manufacturers including Molson-Coors and Anheuser-Busch initially dipped more than 1% following the advisory,” CNBC reported.

Even prior claims that there are positive effects of having a glass of red wine a day are in question. Previous studies that have shown a small amount of alcohol daily can lower risk of cardiovascular disease are being called out for their methodology, according to The New York Times.

“One would be hard pressed to find benefits from alcohol consumption,” Bhora says. “Perhaps stress reduction with impairment of some emotional faculties [but] I’m not even sure if that is necessarily a good thing.”

“We’ve always heard these tales of 80- and 90-year-olds living healthy lives and sort of attributing it to a glass of wine or scotch. I’m not sure that there is any true scientific correlation to that,” he adds.

Alcohol consumption is deeply ingrained in our culture, Bhora says, and “people use it as a crutch for social interactions [and] for emotional reasons.” Yet people are now “very comfortable refusing alcohol at a restaurant or a party for health reasons, and I think that is an avenue that should be encouraged and supported as a first step.”

For starters, Bhora suggests “moving away from the concept of one drink every day is good or safe,” he says. Try to only drink alcohol on weekends if you’re cutting back on your intake and slowly eliminate it from your diet completely if you feel inclined to, Bhora says.

“When a lot of my friends and colleagues who have either stopped drinking alcohol or reduced consumption significantly, [they] have found it liberating,” Bhora says.

“They no longer need it for social interactions, have much more clarity of thought, and in many cases, actually end up being a lot more productive.”

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.