Get Ready for a Big Fuss About Alcohol and Health

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a new, exhaustive report yesterday on alcohol and health. Anticipating pressure for stronger advice against drinking alcohol in the 2025 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Congress asked for this report – perhaps to provide a rationale for toning down any such strong advice.

More or less, that’s what they got. With moderate certainty, the report concludes that “compared with never consuming alcohol, moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower all-cause mortality.” In plain English, this means a little drinking won’t kill you.

Current guidelines say “drinking less is better for health than drinking more.” The World Health Organization is a little more blunt: “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health . . . risk starts from the first drop.”

More to Come

There will be more. A separate report will come by the end of the year from a study of alcohol health which the Department of Health and Human Services is leading. The tilt of this work seems to favor the risk-from-the-first-drop worldview.

What is clear is that sparks will fly. The folks who make wine, beer, and distilled spirits definitely don’t want to see a new age of abstinence. But the impulse to limit alcohol did not disappear with prohibition’s repeal. As a matter of fact, the incoming U.S. President does not drink. Objectivity on this subject is hard to find.

Agree to Disagree

The final outcome seems obvious. After a lot of contentious debate, people with conflicting views will have to agree to disagree. Drinking alcohol brings risks. Though yesterday’s NASEM report says moderate drinking has an association with lower mortality, it does not say that alcohol confers that benefit. The available evidence can’t support such a claim. It’s all observational.

So both views can be valid. It can be true that any drinking brings some health risk at the same time it is true that moderate drinking probably won’t kill you. People make their choices and take their chances. Life goes on.

Click here for the new report, here and here for further perspective on it. For more on the health effects of drinking, click here and here.

Wine, painting by Aleksandra Ekster / WikiArt

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December 18, 2024