Fewer Americans are reporting that they drink alcohol amid a growing belief that even moderate alcohol consumption is a health risk, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
A record high percentage of US adults, 53 per cent, now say moderate drinking is bad for their health, up from 28 per cent in 2015.
The uptick in doubt about alcohol’s benefits is largely driven by young adults – the age group that is most likely to believe drinking “one or two drinks a day” can cause health hazards – but older adults are also now increasingly likely to think moderate drinking carries risks.
As concerns about health impacts rise, fewer Americans are reporting that they drink. The survey finds that 54 per cent of US adults say they drink alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer. That’s lower than at any other point in the past three decades.
The findings of the poll, which was conducted in July, indicate that after years of many believing that moderate drinking was harmless – or even beneficial – worries about alcohol consumption are taking hold.
According to Gallup’s data, even those who consume alcohol are drinking less.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, US government data showed Americans' alcohol consumption was trending up. But other US government surveys have shown a decline in certain types of drinking, particularly among teenagers and young adults.
The US is not alone in this trend. European countries, including Belgium, have recorded a decline in alcohol consumption in recent years.
This comes alongside a new drumbeat of information about alcohol’s risks. While moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for heart health, health professionals in recent years have pointed to overwhelming evidence that alcohol consumption leads to negative health outcomes and is a leading cause of cancer.
Growing scepticism about alcohol’s benefits
In the past, moderate drinking was thought to have some benefits. That idea came from imperfect studies that largely didn’t include younger people and couldn’t prove cause and effect.
Now the scientific consensus has shifted, and several countries recently lowered their alcohol consumption recommendations.
Earlier this year, the outgoing US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, recommended a label on bottles of beer, wine, and liquor that would clearly outline the link between alcohol consumption and cancer.
The federal government’s current dietary guidelines recommend Americans not drink or, if they do consume alcohol, men should limit themselves to two drinks a day or fewer while women should stick to one or fewer.
Gallup’s director of US social research, Lydia Saad, said shifting health advice throughout older Americans’ lives may be a reason they have been more gradual than young adults to recognise alcohol as harmful.
“Older folks may be a little more hardened in terms of the whiplash that they get with recommendations,” Saad said.
“It may take them a little longer to absorb or accept the information,” she added. “Whereas, for young folks, this is the environment that they’ve grown up in. ... In many cases, it would be the first thing young adults would have heard as they were coming into adulthood”.
The US government is expected to release new guidelines later this year.
