Emma Rumney and Jessica Dinapoli
(Reuters) – Dietary guidelines are expected to eliminate long-term advice that adults limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks a day, three sources familiar with the matter, which could be a major victory for industries that are under higher scrutiny due to the review of the effects of alcohol drinking.
Sources say the latest American dietary guidelines are expected to be released this month, which is expected to include a brief statement that encourages Americans to drink moderately or limit alcohol intake due to related health risks.
The guidelines are still being developed and may change, two sources and a fourth person familiar with the process said.
Currently, these recommendations recommend limiting alcohol consumption to one serving or less per day for women, while two men are more or less considered moderate.
Similar guidelines exist in countries such as the UK, which recommends limiting alcohol consumption to 14 units per week, while Canada has taken a more cautious stance, warning that health risks begin to increase after drinking only two drinks per week.
Even moderate drinking is associated with certain health risks, such as higher risk for breast cancer, although some studies have also found it to be associated with possible health benefits, such as lower risk for stroke.
The fourth source said the scientific basis for recommendations for specific day-to-day restrictions was limited, with the aim of ensuring that the guidelines reflect only the strongest evidence.
New guidelines developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have received close attention internationally and have influenced policies from school lunch programs to medical advice. Neither department responded to a request for comment.
Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Some alcohol executives are concerned that there are more stringent recommendations on alcohol intake as authorities like the World Health Organization have warned of warnings about alcohol health risks.
Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon, said drinking alcohol increases the risk of at least seven cancers and called for warning labels on alcoholic beverages.
Major industry players, including Diageo and Anheuser-Busch inbev, lobbied the MP throughout the review. Senate records show that each company spent millions of dollars on lobbying efforts and a series of other issues such as taxes and trade in 2024 and 2025. Both companies declined to comment.
According to three sources, the new guide will start from suggesting consumers limiting their drinking to a specific amount of daily food, which are unwilling to name for free speech.
One said new alcohol-related advice might be limited to one or two sentences. Another said that existing numbers related to moderate drinking may still appear in the longer appendix.
While industry representatives lobbied lawmakers, or how to decide, some officials and researchers advocated stricter restrictions.
Reports aimed at informing the guidelines also draw different conclusions on the health effects of alcohol and its science.
“helpless”
Guidelines for review every five years have recommended moderate drinking and defined as no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two for men since 1990.
Eva Greenthal, a senior policy scientist at the Science Center, a nonprofit focused on nutrition, health and food safety, said the more general language expected in the guidelines was “too vague to no avail”.
With such changes, she continued, even moderate drinking can increase the risk, especially for breast cancer, she continued.
Two studies were conducted to inform the development of guidelines. The first finding that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of certain cancers, but a lower risk of dying for any cause and certain cardiovascular problems such as stroke.
It found that some other evidence of health effects was insufficient to draw conclusions.
Another report found instead that the risk of alcohol death, including an increase in the risk of seven cancers, started with any or low alcohol use levels and increased with increased consumption.
(Emma Rumney’s report in London and Jessica Dinapoli of New York
