Health Officials Consider Ditching ‘One or Two Drinks a Day’ Nod for Safe Boozing
A new recommendation in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines might suggest ‘moderation’ instead.
American health officials are reportedly considering dropping the 45-year-old recommendation to limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks a day.
The current U.S. Dietary Guidelines guidelines say, “Adults of legal drinking age can choose not to drink or to drink in moderation by limiting intakes to 2 drinks or less in a day for men and 1 drink or less in a day for women, on days when alcohol is consumed.”
The guidelines also reference binge drinking — defined as drinking five or more drinks by the typical man or four or more drinks by the typical woman in about two hours.
The new guidelines are expected to include a brief statement encouraging moderation or limited alcohol use due to possible health risks but will not include a recommended number, Reuters reported.
A senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Eva Greenthal, tells the news outlet the expected new guidelines are “so vague as to be unhelpful.”
The recommendations are being developed by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, headed up by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Mr. Kennedy does not drink but has not targeted alcohol in his Make America Healthy Again agenda. He also has not endorsed a recommendation from the final days of the Biden administration that alcoholic beverages carry warning labels about a possible cancer risk.
The new alcohol guidelines have not been finalized and could change, sources told Reuters.
Any reduction in warnings would move in the opposite direction of the World Health Organization, which increased warnings about alcohol consumption last year. It says that alcohol consumption — even at low levels — can bring health risks. WHO did note that most alcohol-related harms come from heavy alcohol consumption.
Any reduction in warnings by the Trump administration would be welcomed by the alcoholic beverage industry. Gen Z consumers are drinking less alcohol than prior generations, and some alcohol executives had feared tighter recommendations could hurt the industry’s long-term prospects, according to the Reuters report.
