US drops daily alcohol limits in 2025–2030 dietary guidelines, advises Americans to “Consume Less Alcohol”
New US dietary guidelines remove daily drink limits and mortality warnings, urging moderation without specific consumption thresholds.
USA – The United States has removed long-standing guidance that advised Americans to limit the number of alcoholic drinks consumed per day, according to newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans covering the 2025–2030 period.
Under the updated recommendations issued by the Trump administration, Americans are now advised to “limit alcoholic beverages” and to “consume less alcohol for better overall health.” The new guidance replaces previous advice that recommended limiting daily alcohol intake to “two drinks or less” for men and “one drink or less” for women.
The revised guidelines also remove earlier warnings that explicitly linked higher levels of alcohol consumption with increased mortality risk. However, similar to the previous 2020–2025 guidelines, the new recommendations continue to advise certain groups to avoid alcohol altogether. These include pregnant women, people recovering from alcohol use disorder, and individuals who cannot control their alcohol consumption.
The guidance also states that people with a family history of alcohol use disorder should “be mindful” of drinking “and associated addictive behaviours.”
Commenting on the changes, Bernstein analyst Nadine Sarwat said the updated guidance was viewed positively by the industry. In a note to clients, Sarwat said the new advice was “at least a sign of relief” for alcohol producers, amid concerns that stricter limits could have been introduced.
The revised guidelines follow a year of debate around alcohol and health policy in the US. In 2024, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory recommending that alcoholic beverage labels be updated to include warnings about cancer risks.
That advisory was followed by the release of a federal report stating that even low levels of alcohol consumption increase mortality risk.
Draft findings from the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) stated that “males and females have a 1 in 1000 risk of dying from alcohol use if they consume more than seven drinks per week.”
The report was one of two studies intended to inform the 2025–2030 dietary guidelines. However, in September it emerged that the Trump administration had shelved the final draft of the study.
The second study considered in the guideline process was the Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) at the end of last year. NASEM concluded “with moderate certainty… compared with never consuming alcohol, moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower all-cause mortality.”
The report clarified that “all-cause mortality refers to the total number of deaths in a population due to any cause.” It also found “with moderate certainty” that moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer in women.
The policy shift comes as alcohol consumption continues to decline in the US. According to Gallup, the share of US adults who say they drink alcohol has fallen to 54%, the lowest level recorded in nearly 90 years of polling.
Sign up HERE to receive our email newsletters with the latest news and insights from Africa and around the world, and follow us on our WhatsApp channel for updates.
