According to the findings of a new report published earlier in December by the U.S. National Academies Press (NAP), moderate alcohol drinking was linked to a lower risk of death from any cause, as well as a lower risk of death from heart disease when compared to abstaining from alcohol. However, it was also linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.

The report, commissioned by the U.S. Congress, was created by a committee from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). Specifically, the committee reviewed a large body of research dating back to 2010 to examine the relationship between moderate drinking and health outcomes, including death from any cause and specific causes such as heart disease, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, weight changes, and Alzheimer’s disease.

“We looked at that body of literature and were able to make three conclusions with what we call moderate certainty, and what that means is that we feel comfortable in making these conclusions based on the evidence we had available,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, chair of the NASEM committee, in a press release.

In his interview with NBC News, Dr. Michael Siegel, a Tufts University public health and community medicine professor, said the link between moderate alcohol consumption and breast cancer should be the ‘main takeaway’ from the new report. “Essentially, what this means is that alcohol is clearly a carcinogen,” Siegel said. “There isn’t a level of moderate or light drinking that can be recommended to people, because at that level it will increase their cancer risk.

 The current U.S. dietary guidelines recommend limiting alcoholic drink consumption to two drinks a day for men and one drink for women. However, an update to federal dietary guidelines in 2025 may include new alcohol recommendations. In addition, a second report carried out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be published in January will also be used to create the 2025 guidelines.

In 2022, a news release by the World Health Organization concluded that no amount of alcohol consumption is safe. Furthermore, another large report published recently by the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) determined that heavy drinking is linked to six types of cancer, including cancers of the head and neck, the esophagus, the liver, and the stomach.