Exclusive-US to drop guidance to limit alcohol to one or two drinks per day, sources say

By Emma Rumney and Jessica Dinapoli

(Reuters) -us dietary guidelines are expected to eliminate the long -term proposal that adults limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks a day, that there may be a major gain for an industry threatened by increasing the health effects of alcohol, according to the three sources familiar to the issue.

Sources are expected to include a brief explanation that encourages Americans to moderate or limit alcohol intake due to associated health risks, updated diet guides for Americans, who can be released at the beginning of this month.

Guides are still being developed and subject to change, a fourth person who is familiar with two sources and processes.

Currently, recommendations propose to limit drinking for women with one or less two or less two or less for women, for women, commonly seen in medium levels.

In countries such as the United Kingdom, similar guidelines suggested to limit drinking to 14 units a week, while Canada adopted a more cautious stance, which warned that health risks began to increase after only two drinks per week.

Even moderate drinking is linked to some health risks such as higher breast cancer risk, but some studies have found a relationship with possible health benefits such as lower risk of stroke.

The fourth source said that the scientific basis of recommending certain daily limits is limited and that the target is to make the instructions only reflect the most robust evidence.

Developed by the US Ministry of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture, new directives are closely monitored in the international arena and affect policies from school lunch programs to medical advice. No department responded to comments requests.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well -known teetotaler, remained greatly silent on alcohol, but emphasized the focus on Whole Foods in the following instructions.

Some alcohol administrators, such as the World Health Organization, increase the warnings of alcohol about health risks, while they were afraid of a movement towards more strict suggestions for alcohol intake.

Former US surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer and called for warning labels in alcoholic beverages.

The major industrial players, including Diageo and Anheuser-Busch Inbev, have lobbies the deputies during the study process. The Senate records show that each company has spent millions on lobby efforts on leds such as taxes and trade in 2024 and 2025, and a number of other issues such as taxes and trade. Both companies refused to comment.

The new instructions will move away from proposing a certain number of daily portions that limit the limits of alcohol consumption of consumers according to three sources that want not to be named freely to speak freely.

One person said the new advice on alcohol would probably be limited to one or two sentences. Another said that existing numbers due to moderate drink may appear in a longer attachment.

Industry representatives guided deputies or lobbying when they needed to be decided, while some officials and researchers advocated more strict restrictions.

Reports aimed at informing the guides, in the meantime, have produced different results about the health effects of alcohol and the science around it.

‘Useless’

The instructions, which have been reviewed every five years, advised to drink moderately and have described it for women more than one drink per day and not more than two for men since 1990.

Eva Greenthal, a senior policy scientist at the Public Interest, which is a non -profit organization that focuses on nutrition, health and food safety, said that the more general language expected in the instructions is “uncertain enough to be useless”.

Under such a change, the message that even moderate drinking could increase risks, especially for breast cancer, would disappear.

Two studies were conducted to inform the development of the guides. First, he found that moderate drinking was associated with some risk of cancer, but was associated with some cardiovascular problems such as the risk of dying for any reason and stroke.

He found that some other health effects were insufficient to draw conclusions.

The other report found that the risk of dying from alcohol use, including increasing risk for seven cancer, has increased in any or low alcohol use and higher consumption.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney in London and Jessica Di’napoli in New York; by Caroline Humer and Louise Heavens)