A new study commissioned by the Biden administration has concluded that health risks escalate with even a single daily alcoholic drink, reinforcing years of existing research that no level of alcohol consumption is protective against mortality. The research was published independently on Tuesday in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs after the Trump administration reportedly opted not to incorporate its findings into the latest dietary guidelines, a decision that followed considerable pushback from the alcohol industry and a congressional committee.
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol Consumption
The study, titled the “Alcohol Intake and Health Study,” examined alcohol-attributable mortality specifically to avoid confounding factors that have plagued earlier research. Researchers found that even levels typically considered “moderate” increase the risk of premature death and contribute to over 200 diseases, including various heart conditions and cancers. Over a lifetime, having around seven drinks a week is linked to one alcohol-attributable death per 1,000 people, with the risk increasing substantially after one drink per day.
Dr. Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and one of the study’s authors, said the findings align with the latest scientific understanding that “less is better when it comes to health.” The long-held belief that moderate drinking benefited heart health has been largely debunked by improved research methods. Older studies, which compared groups based on their drinking habits rather than randomly assigning participants, could not establish cause and effect. When researchers adjusted for variables such as education levels, income, and access to healthcare, the perceived benefits often disappeared.
A 2019 study published in The Lancet similarly found that moderate drinking slightly increased the risk of stroke and high blood pressure, offering no protective health effects. The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory in February 2025 concluded that alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing deadly cancers, noting that breast, mouth, and throat cancers may increase with one drink per day or less. The link between alcohol and cancer has been established since the late 1980s, with evidence strengthening over time for at least seven types of cancer.
The study’s authors argue that the current dietary guidelines, which advise consuming “less alcohol for better overall health,” lack detailed practical advice regarding the specific risks of drinking. They contend their findings support a more forceful recommendation: that current adult drinkers should consume one drink or fewer per day. “I’m glad that they had a message that corresponds with our science, and that is that less is best,” said Naimi. “But giving people quantity information is necessary to make a truly informative guideline.”
Allegations of Political Interference
Robert Vincent, a former alcohol policy official at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) who spearheaded the multi-year effort, accused the Trump administration of “sidelining” the research. In an editorial accompanying the study, Vincent wrote: “The challenges confronting alcohol policy today are not rooted in scientific uncertainty. What remains contested is whether evidence will meaningfully inform policy when it conflicts with commercial interests.” He further alleged that while serving in the Trump administration, he was “asked to kill the study” but refused. Vincent was later laid off last year as part of a government reduction in force.
The Trump administration denied the claim. Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), stated that HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture “reviewed the study alongside the broader body of available scientific evidence and followed the established process for developing the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” She added, “The Guidelines are informed by the totality of the scientific record, not any single report or analysis.” HHS did not immediately respond to Vincent’s specific claim that he was asked to kill the study.
The controversy highlighted the increasingly strained relationship between the medical and scientific communities and the Trump administration, which frequently questioned or disregarded established scientific consensus in its policymaking, dismissed numerous veteran federal scientists, and reduced scientific grants crucial for medical innovation. Following the release of a draft report last year, the alcohol industry actively campaigned to discredit the study’s work. The House oversight committee also weighed in, issuing a report earlier this year that labeled the study “fraught with bias” and accused its authors of having predetermined conclusions based on their prior research and affiliations. The committee had launched an investigation in April 2024, alleging the study was conducted inconsistently with federal law, wasted taxpayer dollars, and raised outcome bias concerns. Chairman James Comer’s committee concluded that the study should not be considered in the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines.
The alcohol industry has spent millions of dollars on lobbying, with groups like the Distilled Spirits Council and the Beer Institute arguing that more generalized alcohol recommendations would align with “make America healthy again” principles and support domestic manufacturers. A coalition of trade groups, the Science Over Bias coalition, has called for a more transparent dietary guideline process and sought to combat the influence of “anti-alcohol activist researchers.”
Implications for Dietary Guidance
The new findings diverge from another government-commissioned review intended to inform the dietary guidelines, which had suggested moderate alcohol use was associated with a decreased risk of mortality from all causes, albeit with an increased risk of certain diseases. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, requested by Congress, reviewed scientific evidence and defined moderate alcohol intake as two drinks a day for men and one for women. That report concluded with moderate certainty that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower all-cause mortality compared to never consuming alcohol, but also with moderate certainty that it is associated with a higher risk of female breast cancer.
The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, updated this year, advised consuming “less alcohol for better overall health” but omitted specific quantity limits and warnings about cancer risk — a shift widely attributed to intense lobbying efforts. Previous guidelines, such as the 2020-2025 edition, had recommended limiting alcohol intake to two drinks or less per day for men and one drink or less per day for women, while also acknowledging emerging evidence that even drinking within recommended limits may increase the overall risk of death from various causes, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, a co-author of the new study and deputy scientific director at the Public Health Institute’s Alcohol Research Group, addressed a point raised by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in his explanations of the new guidelines: that drinking serves as “a social lubricant that brings people together” and that while not drinking is preferred, being social offers health benefits. Martinez-Matyszczyk countered, “I don’t know of any studies that have teased out the social effect from the health effect.”
Approximately half of Americans aged 12 or older reported consuming alcohol in the past month — 134.3 million individuals, or 46.6% of the population — making it the most commonly used addictive substance in the U.S. Women’s alcohol volume consumption in 2020 reached its highest level in four decades, and consumption also rose substantially among Black men and women and Latina women from 2000 to 2020. Alcohol consumption caused an estimated 178,000 deaths annually in the U.S. in 2020-2021. A single drink is typically defined as about one 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or a shot of liquor — a standard drink in the U.S. contains 14 grams (0.6 U.S. ounces) of alcohol.