Alcohol limits at odds in upcoming dietary guidelines

(The Center Square) - The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating a study funded by the Biden administration on alcohol guidelines for Americans, as the U.S. Health and Human Services Department prepares to release its five-year dietary guidelines for Americans.

In January, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking issued a draft report on its findings analyzing the impact of alcohol intake on overall health.

“The risk of alcohol attributable death increases linearly with alcohol consumption,” the report said.

The draft study found that even one drink a week poses a risk of alcohol attributable death for both males and females.

“Even at low levels of consumption, alcohol had a significant impact on the health of individuals 15 to 39 years of age,” the report said.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, slammed the report's findings and promised a further investigation.

Comer said the report “skewed widely available information about the effects of alcohol consumption on Americans to favor the Biden administration’s predetermined narrative.”

Comer said the study is “duplicative” of another conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the direction of Congress.

A 2023 World Health Organization report appeared to align with the Interagency Coordinating Committee's draft report.

“When it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health,” the WHO report found.

The reports funded by the federal government were designed to contribute to the upcoming dietary guidelines for Americans, a set of recommendations released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The guidelines come out every five years.

“The ICCPUD study’s formation outside the transparency of the typical Dietary Guidelines process raises scientific integrity and conflict of interest concerns,” Comer said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a May House hearing that the dietary guidelines could be released by August.

“It is imperative that the dietary guidelines are based on rigorous, sound, and objective scientific evidence, efficiently steward taxpayer dollars, and adhere to congressional intent,” Comer said.

The guidelines have been largely unchanged regarding alcohol consumption recommendations since 1990. However, studies limiting alcohol intake in 2020 were rejected by the first Trump administration for inclusion in the dietary guidelines.

The studies were brought back and funded by the Biden administration.

While Comer is pushing back on new recommendations, it remains unclear which alcohol consumption study will prevail for the final draft of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Kennedy said his guidelines will be shorter than previous administrations and will “tell people, essentially, eat whole food, eat the food that’s good for you.”