RFK Jr. releases new dietary guidelines
Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new dietary guidelines and said his message was clear: “Eat real food.”
Federal health officials are no longer advising Americans on how much alcohol is safe to drink, instead advising people to “reduce their alcohol intake” or avoid it altogether if they have certain health conditions.
The new recommendations from the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Department of Health and Human Services overturn long-standing government guidelines that define moderate drinking as two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.
Scientists, nutritionists and advocates say the new guidance is too vague for people to apply in their daily lives and have criticized the Trump administration for missing an opportunity to warn about alcohol’s links to cancer and other health problems.
“There’s some risk with every level of drinking, and the risk increases as you drink more,” said Christopher Kahler, director of the Center for Alcohol Abuse Research at Brown University. “The current guidelines do not discuss risks, only that drinking less alcohol is better for your health.”
For the first time, the committee that compiled most of the dietary guidance did not mention alcohol, said Deirdre Kay Tobias, a Harvard nutrition professor who served on the committee. Instead, the Trump administration relied on advice from two outside commissions to study how alcohol affects health.
One study specifically found that the risk of breast cancer increases with every drink you drink each day. Another draft report said the risk of death from alcohol use “starts at very low levels of average use” and linked alcohol use to seven types of cancer.
But the administration wrote in the document that it chose “not to consider the findings” of those two committees.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said at a news conference on Jan. 7 that alcohol’s value comes from being a social lubricant that brings friends together and has a good time, but said the “best case scenario” would be no drinking at all.
“These dietary guidelines include alcohol, but that means you shouldn’t have alcohol with breakfast, right?” Oz said. “This should be done in small doses and we hope it can be done at some type of event where alcohol may be involved.”
Oz said there was “no really good data to support” one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. “That data was probably primarily mixed up with broader data about social connections,” he says.
Teresa Huang, a registered dietitian and professor at Simmons College in Boston, said people who come to her are looking for specific guidance with a clear message, rather than general recommendations to eat or drink more or less of something.
“Current recommendations to drink less are vague,” Huang said. “What do you mean? I used to drink 6 packs a day, now I drink 5 packs? It’s less, but is it enough? If you drink once a month, do you need to reduce the amount you drink?”
Kahler, of Brown University, said the one- to two-drink standard would give people a clear baseline to consider their drinking habits, help doctors provide medical advice, and help academics like him study excessive drinking.
“Was the previous guideline to allow drinking?” he asked. “I think there was some concern that they were showing that drinking at that level is safe. I think the research has proven that there are known risks at even lower drinking levels.”
Mike Marshall, CEO of the American Alcohol Policy Alliance, said his group advocates reducing moderate drinking for men to one drink a day. He said he had made multiple attempts to meet with President Kennedy and his staff without success.
USA TODAY has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to respond.
Marshall cited a draft study showing that men who drink seven drinks a week have a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying from an alcohol-related problem, compared to a 1 in 25 chance for men who drink 14 drinks a week.
“It’s disappointing, it’s frustrating, and ultimately it’s going to be very harmful to American families,” he said.
If you or someone you know needs help reducing their alcohol intake, visit re Thinkingdriding.niaaa.nih.gov.
