White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre laughed off a report that the White House wants to limit Americans to having two beers per week.
Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked the press secretary the question after George Koob, the Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, toldThe Daily Mail that the United States Department of Agriculture could revise its alcohol advice to match Canada’s.
America’s northern neighbour advises that its residents have two drinks per week.
“If there's health benefits, I think people will start to re-evaluate where we're at [in the US],” Dr Koob told the Mail.
But the press secretary brushed off the question.
“Where is this coming from?” she asked. Doocy asked how such a move would be received by Americans.
“Let me tell you what I’m not going to get involved in, in that question right there,” she said. “I have no idea, I’ve not seen the data. I cannot speak to this. I will leave it to the experts.”
US guidelines defines one drink as containing 0.6 per cent fluid ounces of alcohol, which equals one beer, one glass of wine or one shot.
Dr Koob told the Mail that drinking alcohol had no positive benefits.
“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.”
Dr Koob said at the time that he enjoys two glasses of “buttery Californian Chardonnay” a week.
The review process for Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030 began recently but the final version may not be published until late in 2025.
