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The upcoming U.S. Dietary Guidelines will instead be influenced by a competing study, favored by industry, which found that moderate alcohol consumption was healthy.
Sept. 5, 2025, 4:51 p.m. ET
The Department of Health and Human Services has pulled back a government report warning of a link between cancer and drinking even small amounts of alcohol, according to the authors of the research.
Their report, the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, warned that even one drink a day raises the risk of liver cirrhosis, oral and esophageal cancer, and injuries. The scientists who wrote it were told that the final version would not be submitted to Congress, as had been planned.
The report is one of two assessments that were to be used to shape the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines’ recommendations on alcohol consumption. Its early findings were reported by The New York Times in January; a full draft remained on the H.H.S. website as of Friday afternoon.
A competing report, written by a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel, came to a conclusion long supported by the industry: that moderate drinking is healthier than not drinking. Some panelists came under criticism for financial ties to alcohol makers.
The academies report was requested by Congress in 2022, after the scientific review for the last version of the dietary guidelines in 2020 stated that health risks associated with low consumption might have been underestimated. The alcohol industry has strongly criticized such findings and opposed efforts to tighten drinking recommendations.
H.H.S. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives of the alcohol industry.
