After Saying "Not Even One Drink Is Safe," Why Has the U.S. Government Changed Its Stance to "Moderation Is Okay"?

Withdrawal of Report Warning "Even One Drink Is Risky"
Shift Back to "Moderate Drinking Is Acceptable"

The United States has revised its dietary guidelines every five years. Since 1990, it has provided specific daily recommended alcohol intake amounts by gender. However, as recent studies have increasingly suggested that even small amounts of alcohol are not beneficial to health, there has been a growing need to adjust these recommendations. Amid this, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which had maintained a firm stance that even small amounts of alcohol harm health, recently backed down, leading to suspicions that lobbying may have been involved.

Research findings related to alcohol consumption remain mixed. Some reports suggest that one drink a day lowers the risk of diabetes and has a preventive effect on ischemic stroke, but other analyses indicate that the same amount of alcohol increases the risk of liver cancer and that occasional binge drinking eliminates the stroke prevention benefits. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Pixabay

On September 5 (local time), foreign media outlets such as the New York Times reported that HHS had officially withdrawn its "Alcohol Consumption and Health Research" report. The report had warned that even one drink a day increases the risk of serious diseases such as liver cancer, oral cancer, and esophageal cancer, but it was never submitted to Congress and was effectively scrapped. As a result, the new "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" are now likely to include only vague language such as "drink in moderation or reduce alcohol consumption for health reasons," instead of the previous specific recommendations of "no more than two drinks per day for men and one for women."

Some have raised suspicions that pressure from the alcoholic beverage industry played a role in HHS's withdrawal of the report. Mike Marshall, head of the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance, strongly criticized the move, saying, "HHS is essentially acting on behalf of the alcohol industry" and "has buried health information that the public needs to know." In fact, during the 2020 revision process, a counter-report was issued at the request of Congress, claiming that "light drinking may be beneficial to health." The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) also released materials late last year asserting that "moderate drinking is better than abstinence."

The adult drinking rate in the United States continues to decline. In Gallup's August poll, the adult drinking rate in the U.S. recorded an all-time low of 54%. More than half of the consumers responded in the poll that they know "drinking 1 to 2 glasses of alcohol a day is harmful to health." The photo is not related to specific content of the article. Photo by Pixabay

Research findings related to alcohol consumption remain mixed. Some reports suggest that one drink a day lowers the risk of diabetes and has a preventive effect on ischemic stroke, while other analyses indicate that the same amount of alcohol increases the risk of liver cancer, and that occasional binge drinking eliminates the stroke prevention benefits. Professor Katherine Keyes of Columbia University, who participated in drafting the recent report, warned, "The public has the right to know how alcohol affects their bodies. The more you drink, the higher your risk of death, serious illness, and chronic disease, and even small amounts of alcohol can increase these risks." On the other hand, "Science Over Bias," an organization representing the alcoholic beverage industry, countered, "Dietary guidelines should be based on scientific evidence, not the opinions of a few scholars, and must be free from conflicts of interest."

Meanwhile, the adult drinking rate in the United States continues to decline. In Gallup's August poll, the adult drinking rate recorded an all-time low of 54%. More than half of the respondents said in the survey that they know "drinking 1 to 2 glasses of alcohol a day is harmful to health." Sales of wine and spirits also continue to decrease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also maintained the position since last year that "there is no safe level of alcohol consumption." Last year, Canada drastically lowered its recommended weekly alcohol intake for adult men from 15 drinks or fewer to just two drinks or fewer.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.