WASHINGTON — New U.S. dietary guidelines released in January removed previous messaging that recommended consumers limit alcohol intake to one or two drinks per day. Federal officials noted in a scientific appendix accompanying the guidelines that their alcohol recommendation was based on a separate study requested by Congress rather than the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report.

The SAMHSA report, titled the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, began in 2023 as part of an update to the dietary guidelines. The study concluded that available scientific evidence supports a gender-neutral drinking limit of no more than one alcoholic beverage per day for adults who drink, stating that alcohol provides no net health benefit. The study found that consuming approximately one alcoholic beverage per day increases the risk of mortality and serious illness, specifically linking it to elevated mortality risks from liver cirrhosis, esophageal cancer, oral cancer, and injuries. For females, liver cancer was also an extended risk.

The SAMHSA study was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, though the publication did not reference SAMHSA funding. Robert Vincent, former associate administrator for alcohol prevention and treatment policy at SAMHSA, said, "These findings are not radical. They are rigorous and commercially threatening." Vincent lost his federal health agency position last year during broader agency cuts. He stated, "The public health consequences of sidelining evidence-based alcohol policy are immediate and cumulative."

The Trump administration did not release the final SAMHSA study. A January House Oversight Committee report recommended that dietary guideline authors ignore the study's conclusions. The new dietary guidelines advised consumers to consume less alcohol for better overall health.

For their recommendations, federal officials relied on an alcohol study led by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the request of Congress. Fourteen outside researchers conducted the National Academies review. This review found moderate evidence linking moderate drinking to lower all-cause mortality, but it did not specifically examine causes of death driven by alcohol. The National Academies review also found that moderate drinking increases the risk of breast cancer.

Alcohol contributes to an estimated 178,000 deaths annually in the United States. "Federal officials reviewed the alcohol study alongside the broader body of available scientific evidence when updating the nation's dietary advice," said Emily Hilliard, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services. Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks in a single sitting for men and four or more for women. A separate panel shaping dietary guidelines reached the same gender-neutral conclusion in 2020, but the proposal was not adopted.