Source Says Feds Will Declare "No Amount of Alcohol" is Healthy

A source in Washington, DC says they have seen the recommendation for the coming U.S. Dietary Guidelines

You should be contacting your congressional representatives right now. And here’s why:

“No amount of alcohol is acceptable for a healthy lifestyle.”

This is the wording of a proposed recommendation to be attached to the coming Federal Dietary Guidelines, according to a well-placed source located in Washington, DC and who has seen it with their own eyes.

If this sounds a good deal like the World Health Organization’s recent proclamation that there is “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health” you would be right.

Both statements are agenda-driven quackery that bears no resemblance to reality. However, the idea that the U.S. Government would take part in this biased, agenda-driven attempt to severely diminish the American beer, wine, and spirits industries is not just distressing, but consequential. The federal government releasing such a statement has the potential to kill off numerous small wineries, distillers and brewers over the course of a few years as younger Americans take this kind of statement to heart.

I should be clear that while I don’t have confirmation that this declaration will be included in the coming 2025 Dietary Guidelines, the source is highly reputable and respected.

There is already concern circulating that the Biden Administration has as its intent to make the kind of recommendation cited above. In a letter to Dr. Monica N. Feit, Ph.D. Executive Director, Health and Medicine Division National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, members of Congress requested documents concerning the process by which alcohol recommendations would be made in the upcoming 2025 Dietary Guidelines. In that letter, the members of Congress noted:

“The Administration appears to be driving toward approving Dietary Guidelines that by default recommend that Americans consume no alcohol whatsoever, despite a continually evolving scientific debate about the risks and benefits of moderate alcohol consumption on individual health outcomes.”

If they are right about this concern, then the above statement is exactly the kind of wording we would expect to see.

The fear had been that the U.S. Dietary Guidelines might tend toward last year’s declaration in Canada that no more than two drinks per week were acceptable alcohol consumption. This concern was due to Dr. George Koop, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, responding to a question about alcohol recommendations in the Guidelines this way: “I mean, they're not going to go up, I'm pretty sure. So, if [alcohol consumption guidelines] go in any direction, it would be toward Canada.”

The idea that there is “No amount of alcohol is acceptable for a healthy lifestyle” isn’t even in the same ballpark as Canada’s declaration.

Any member of the beer, wine, and spirits industry in the U.S. who is concerned this kind of irresponsible, industry-killing recommendation might emerge in the coming Dietary Guidelines next year, should probably get on the phone and call their Congressional representative and Senators. Let them know this kind of agenda-driven recommendation will severely harm small producers, that it makes a mockery of responsible drinkers, and that you expect them to speak up on this issue.

The idea that no amount of alcohol works with a healthy lifestyle simply isn’t scientific. It ignores all the data that shows moderate consumption of at least wine can have positive effects on our health and our well being. The idea confuses excessive consumption of alcohol with responsible consumption of alcohol.

And ask yourself this: If no amount of alcohol is acceptable for a healthy lifestyle what justification is there for lawmakers to NOT impose draconian marketing restrictions and heavy taxes on wine?