A glass of wine a day is often touted as a healthy choice for your heart. While there are warnings against consuming other substances such as cigarettes, alcohol in moderation is usually considered OK – but that could change.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage people to avoid large amounts of alcohol and suggest limiting themselves to two or fewer drinks per day for men and one or fewer drinks per day for women.

Still, the latest advisory from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggests that even small amounts of alcohol could be harmful and increase the risk of cancer.

“Alcohol is a known, preventable cause of cancer, responsible for approximately 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer-related deaths annually in the United States – more than the 13,500 alcohol-related traffic deaths per year in the United States – and yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk “consciously,” the Surgeon General’s statement said.

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

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

“Its mechanism of cell damage is well known. It causes oxidative stress and impairs DNA repair, among other mechanisms that lead to cell cycle dysregulation and cancer development.”

The Surgeon General is calling on manufacturers of alcoholic beverages such as beer and spirits to update cancer risk warnings. Currently mainly alcoholic drinks warn against consumption by pregnant women and driving under the influence of alcohol.

“It’s more social and political pressures that prevent us from doing the right thing, which is putting a warning label on a substance that is clearly toxic,” Bhora tells CNBC Make It.

“Shares of alcohol makers including Molson-Coors and Anheuser-Busch initially fell more than 1% following the news,” CNBC reported.

Even previous claims that a glass of red wine a day has positive effects are questionable. Previous studies that have shown that a small amount of alcohol daily can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease have been criticized for their methodology, according to the New York Times.

“It would be difficult to derive benefit from alcohol consumption,” says Bhora. “Maybe stress relief with some impairment in some emotional skills (but) I’m not even sure that’s necessarily a good thing.”

“We’ve always heard these stories of 80- and 90-year-olds living healthy lives and somehow attributing it to a glass of wine or scotch. “I’m not sure there’s any real scientific connection to it,” he says, adding.

Drinking alcohol is ingrained in our culture, Bhora says, and “people use it as a crutch for social interactions (and) for emotional reasons.” However, now people are “very comfortable with it at a restaurant or at a party for health reasons abstaining from alcohol and I think this is a path that should be encouraged and supported as a first step.”

First of all, Bhora suggests: “Departing from the concept of having a drink every day is good or safe,” he says. Try to drink alcohol only on weekends when you’re reducing your consumption, and slowly eliminate it from your diet completely if you’re so inclined, says Bhora.

“Many of my friends and colleagues who have either stopped drinking alcohol or significantly reduced alcohol consumption have found it liberating,” says Bhora.

“You no longer need it for social interactions, have much more clarity of thought, and in many cases are even much more productive.”

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