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Canadian researchers revealed that there's no supporting evidence to claim that moderate drinking brings about health benefits such as healthier hearts and longer life spans.

The researchers from the University of Victoria's Centre for Addictions Research in British Columbia, who reviewed 87 long-term studies on alcohol and death rates, labelled the claims of health benefits in moderate drinking as "likely overstated." Their findings appeared in the March issue of the Journal of Studies of Alcohol and Drugs, CBC reported.

The researchers said that studies showing that moderate drinkers outliving non-drinkers were flawed because they included in the "abstainers" category ex-drinkers who have stopped, sometimes for health reasons, according to the report that appeared in Bloomberg. That means the kind of "non-drinking" group that former researchers have been looking at all along were "inherently less healthy" than the group that drinks in moderation.

Moderate drinking was defined as no more than two standard alcoholic drinks per day for men or one standard drink a day for women, at least once a week, for any kind of alcohol.

The researchers said that a "skeptical position is warranted" when it comes to alcohol's net health benefits. Tim Stockwell, who was among the researchers on the study, noted that earlier research was defective for not accounting for other protective factors among drinkers, such as wealth and eating more fruits and vegetables.

"We should drink alcohol for pleasure," Stockwell said in an interview. "But if you think it's for your health, you're deluding yourself."

There's substantial public interest in whether light drinking is protective or harmful, as well as commercial implications, said Jurgen Rehm of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in a journal commentary published with the review.

Rehm called the message of health benefits from light alcohol consumption "exaggerated" and said that "nobody has to start drinking for health reasons."