Maybe it ' s just me , but the old norm of 21 per week is just batshit insane , no ? The old recommendation was based on aggregated results from large scale studies which showed that if you took all effects into account negative and positive at 23 drinks there was no difference with not drinking at all . At 12 drinks a day you were actually better off then not drinking at all . The main factor for this positive effect was a reduced risk for heart blood vessel issues So the ' old norm ' didn ' t look into your risk to get addicted , as that would have put you quite quickly in a higher bracket of consumption . It looks like this new recommendation is actually focused on just that , the potential risk of addiction how small as it may be without taking the actual net health effect into account .