Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration is planning to introduce strict new guidelines to pressure the American people to limit their alcohol consumption.
Under the new rules, the Biden admin will urge the public to drink no more than two beers per week.
Biden’s health “czar” Dr. George Koob told the Daily Mail the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) could revise its alcohol advice to match Canada‘s limits.
The Canadian people are advised to have just two drinks per week.
Koob said he has been watching Canada’s “big experiment” with interest.
“If there’s health benefits, I think people will start to re-evaluate where we’re at [in America],” said Koob, who admits enjoying a couple of glasses of Chardonnay a week.
Current U.S. recommendations say women can have up to one bottle of beer, a small glass of wine, or a shot of liquor every day.
The limit for men is double.
However, those guidelines are up for review in 2025.
Per the current guidelines, a drink is defined as containing 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol, equivalent to one beer, one glass of wine at 12 percent alcohol, or one shot.
Koob, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), asserted that the limits will be reduced in 2025.
“I mean, they’re not going to go up, I’m pretty sure,” he said.
“So, if [alcohol consumption guidelines] go in any direction, it would be toward Canada.”
The guidelines are currently under review, although the updated versions may not be published until the end of 2025.
The debate about whether alcohol is good in low amounts has been around for decades.
However, Koob told the Daily Mail that there are “no benefits” to drinking alcohol in terms of physical health.
“Most of the benefits people attribute to alcohol, we feel they really have more to do with what someone’s eating rather than what they’re drinking,” he said.
“So it really has to do with the Mediterranean diet, socio-economic status, that makes you able to afford that kind of diet and make your own fresh food and so forth.
“With this in mind, most of the benefits kind of disappear on the health side.”
But he did give ground to social benefits.
He describes alcohol as a “social lubricant.”
Koob admitted that he consumes around two glasses of white wine per week, usually a “buttery Californian Chardonnay.”
Canadian health chiefs admitted their new rules were a “bit shocking” when they were announced earlier this year.
The review process for Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030 has already begun — although the final version may not be published until the end of 2025.
America has been recommending a safe limit of up to two drinks per day for adult men and one for women since the 1990s.
In the past, studies suggested there may be some benefits to drinking.
Resveratrol in red wine has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer and improved heart health.
In more recent years, the research has gone the other way, warning that even consuming a small amount of alcohol is dangerous for health.
The move limit the public’s drinking has quickly come under criticism from some quarters, however.
Many accused authorities of “ignoring” the benefits of drinking, including how it can help in social situations and with combatting loneliness.
Dr. Dan Malleck, a health sciences expert at Brock University in Canada, said: “Alcohol infuses many lives in many positive ways.
“We celebrate accomplishments, mark occasions, bring wine to parties, meeting with friends, commiserate, relax, blow off steam… these are important activities and part of the texture and tone of many lives.”
Experts have previously argued that studies into the risks of alcohol are flawed because they fail to examine these social benefits.
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