Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

LEIF LARSON: A Beer, A Grill, And Guidelines That Finally Make Sense

Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration’s new Dietary Guidelines finally got alcohol right, treating grown adults like grown adults with a science-based, common-sense approach to responsible drinking, and I thought about that for the first time last Saturday, standing over my grill with a cold beer in my hand.

Last weekend was the first real spring afternoon of the year. I’d fired up the grill to cook some burgers and opened a beer that had been chilling in the ice bucket. While my afternoon feast was sizzling, I recalled the Biden-era doctrine that one could call “Alcohol consumption for Dummies.” For years, the official line from the liberal Biden administrations had been two drinks for men, one for women, and not a drop more. Rules that, it turns out, were never really backed by solid science in the first place.

The new guidance, rolled out in January by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, drops those arbitrary numbers and simply urges people to drink responsibly. Dr. Mehmet Oz over at CMS even made the point that alcohol can be a “social lubricant,” that there’s something genuinely healthy about gathering with friends and safely enjoying yourself. Standing there flipping my burgers, I had to agree. This is what responsible adults have been doing at cookouts and weddings, and ball games for generations.

The beer in my hand was about 5% alcohol. A shot of whiskey is closer to 40%. Studies actually show your peak blood alcohol after a beer is a lot lower than after the same amount of alcohol from liquor, which tracks with common sense. Nobody shows up to a family barbecue planning to pound rum and Cokes. They have a beer with their burger, or a glass of wine with dinner, and that’s the whole point. The new guidelines recognize that reality, while also being honest that overconsumption is a real problem, including drunk driving, addiction, damaged health, and telling folks who struggle with alcohol that they shouldn’t drink at all. That’s the right message.

There’s even some evidence that light drinking can do a little good. The American Heart Association has noted that moderate drinking may have some benefits, and a glass of red wine or champagne contains polyphenols that may help with vascular function. It’s part of why you see folks in some European countries enjoying a daily glass of wine and still posting excellent health outcomes. Is wine a superfood? Of course not. But it’s not poison either, and it’s about time a set of federal guidelines acknowledged the difference.

The data backing up this common-sense approach is stronger than the critics let on.

A landmark 2024 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the very report Congress requested to inform the next Dietary Guidelines, concluded that, compared to never drinking, moderate alcohol consumption is actually associated with lower all-cause mortality. Let that sink in. The folks telling us to panic over a beer at the ballgame were ignoring their own blue-ribbon panel.

More than a hundred prospective studies have shown that light to moderate drinkers see some reduction in the risk of death from cardiovascular causes compared to abstainers. Researchers have pointed to higher HDL cholesterol, lower A1C levels, and reduced inflammation as some of the mechanisms at work.

And the healthy-aging research is even more striking. Studies have found that regular moderate drinkers who also eat well, exercise, and don’t smoke enjoy substantially better outcomes than those who do everything else right but abstain. None of this means anyone should start drinking for their health. But it does mean the old one-size-fits-all finger-wagging was never the settled science its defenders pretended it was.

As the sun started dipping behind the trees, I thought about how much more sense this approach makes than the old one. The previous guidelines treated every adult like a problem waiting to happen and ignored basic factors like body weight, height, and context. The new ones trust Americans to make smart choices to enjoy a beer at the ball game, a glass of wine at a wedding, a cold one at the grill on a spring afternoon and to know their limits. The Trump administration deserves credit for getting this one right, and the rest of us should raise a glass (responsibly, of course) and follow along.

Leif Larson is a noted strategist with 20 years of experience in PR, public affairs and politics. He has contributed to the success of prominent political, corporate and advocacy groups across the country throughout his career.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)