SYDNEY: The Australian wine industry says that new drinking guidelines, which recommend limiting liquor consumption to two standard drinks a day for women and four for men, are wrong because they do not take into account the physiological and biological differences in people.

The reaction from the Winemakers Federation of Australia (WFA) is against the draft guidelines released by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for public consultation.

The federation insists that the guidelines, which reduce by half the recommended liquor intake for men, are based on insufficient evidence.

"The existing guidelines recommend two standard drinks per day for women and four for men. This difference takes into account gender differences in the distribution and elimination of alcohol in the human body and gender differences in the biological effects of alcohol on the human body," news.com.au quoted WFA chief executive Stephen Strachan as saying.

"The draft guidelines do not take physiological and biological differences into account and recommend an upper limit of two standard drinks per day for both men and women," he added.

Strachan the benefits associated with moderate alcohol consumption had been ignored while drafting the guidelines.

"The weight of accumulated medical evidence in support of benefits associated with moderate consumption is overwhelming and any omission of these factors is a glaring inadequacy," he said.

"The combined impact of this omission and the dramatic reduction in the daily recommendation will simply leave consumers confused and distrustful," he added.

The NHMRC is likely to publish final guidelines in March or April.