More and more people in the Netherlands are sticking to alcohol guidelines and only drinking one glass per day.

The moderate Dutch

A growing number of people in the Netherlands are sticking to Health Council guidelines and are only having at most, one drink per day. The Leefstijlmonitor is a biennial survey that records the nations vices and is conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in collaboration with the public health institute (RIVM) and the Trimbos Institute. The survey revealed that 41 percent of adults either don’t drink or limit themselves to one drink a day.

Demographically, women and older residents are most likely to limit their drinking to one glass a day, or not drink at all. Around two-thirds of people aged 75 or older comply with the guidelines as well as over 50 percent of women. Unsurprisingly, only a third of people younger than 30 stick to the guideline.

The dangers of drinking

According to the Health Council, those who drink more than one alcoholic beverage a day are at great risk of getting a stroke, colon cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer. The Health Council has conceded that moderate alcohol consumption can have certain health benefits, but those benefits do not outweigh the disadvantages. Furthermore, researchers found that those who drink less are also less likely to smoke or take drugs.

“Every alcoholic drink does damage to the body,” said Karin Monshouwer, spokeswoman for Trimbos, the institute for addiction and mental health. “It’s important people are made aware of this risk, as I think that people underestimate it or do not know it.”

A lot of work still to do

While Monshouwer believes that the number of people drinking more than one alcoholic beverage a day is declining, she believes there is still a lot of work to do. “It is important that more attention is paid to it [alcohol consumption] in education,” she said. Monshouwer also agrees more needs to be done than just creating awareness in schools, for instance, by limiting the exposure of alcohol advertising, a measure that was proposed in the government’s 2018 health agreement.