9 hours ago
Trump admin to scrap alcohol limits in stunning U-turn
America is set to scrap its decades old recommendation that people do not consume more than two alcoholic drinks a day.
Under the current guidelines, women are told not to drink more than one alcoholic beverage a day while men are told to drink no more than two.
But now, sources say this could be replaced with more generic advice to drink 'in moderation' or to limit alcohol intake due to associated health risks.
Three sources — who asked not to be named — leaked the proposed update to Reuters, potentially marking the first time alcohol limits have been changed since 1990.
It is set to be revealed in the updated Dietary Guidelines, published every five years to give dietary recommendations to Americans, that could be released this month.
The proposal moves America's guidelines away from its neighbor Canada, which recently introduced stricter guidelines urging Canadians to limit alcohol intake to just two drinks per week.
It's a U-turn on the Biden administration's proposal to investigate emulating Canada's guidelines, revealed in a interview in 2023.
Even moderate drinking is linked to some health risks, studies suggest, such as higher risk of cancer and dementia.
A fourth source told Reuters that the updates to the guidelines were being made because the scientific basis for the current recommendations was 'limited'.
One source said the new alcohol-related recommendation will probably be limited to a sentence or two in the new report.
The new guidelines are being developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior is a known teetotaler, but has remained largely silent on alcohol — instead emphasizing whole foods in the upcoming dietary guidelines.
Donald Trump also famously does not consume alcohol after his older brother Fred — an alcoholic — died at age 50 from a heart attack.
In remarks last week, the 79-year-old President said his advice on good parenting was 'no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes... I also say no tattoos'.
Some experts had feared tighter alcohol limits would be set under the guidelines after a federal report released in January suggested just one alcoholic drink a day raises the risk of suffering from more than a dozen health conditions.
These included a higher risk of colon and esophageal cancers and of liver cirrhosis.
That same month, former US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murphy warned that drinking alcohol could raise the risk of suffering from seven types of cancer.
He also recommended that all alcoholic beverages include a cigarette-style warning on their packaging to highlight the link between alcohol and cancer.
Major industry players including Diageo — which makes Captain Morgan's rum and Smirnoff Vodka among others — and Anheuser-Busch — which owns Bud Light — have spent millions lobbying lawmakers over the guidelines and other issues over the last two years.
The guidelines are reviewed every five years and have advised drinking as no more than one drink per day for women and two per day for men since 1990.
Eva Greenthal, a senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit focused on nutrition, health and food safety, said the more general language expected in the guidelines was 'so vague as to be unhelpful'.
Under such a change, the message that even moderate drinking can increase risks, especially for breast cancer, would get lost, she added.
Two studies were produced to inform the development of the guidelines. The first found that moderate drinking was associated with increased risk of some cancers, but a decreased risk of dying from any cause and some cardiovascular problems like stroke.
The evidence for some other health impacts was insufficient to draw conclusions, it found.
The other report conversely found the risk of dying from alcohol use, including increased risk for seven cancers, begins at any or low levels of alcohol use and increases with higher consumption.
