US guidelines didn't feature drinking risks found in gov't commissioned study

WASHINGTON — A report on alcohol’s health effects, commissioned by the federal government but unreleased under President Trump, came out Tuesday — in a scientific journal. The study finds even low levels of drinking may increase the risk of various diseases or even death.

The Alcohol Intake and Health Study began in 2023 and was run by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as part of an update to the United States’ dietary guidelines. However, the panel’s work was quickly embroiled in controversy , with some members of Congress and alcohol industry trade groups alleging scientists on the project held an anti-alcohol bent.

The group’s final study was not released by the Trump administration. A House Oversight Committee report in January called it “irretrievably flawed” and recommended dietary guideline authors ignore its conclusions. Some authors of the study, who work outside the U.S. government, say their findings were politicized and suppressed because they are unfavorable to powerful special interests, including the beer, wine, and liquor lobbies.

Scorned by Trump officials, researchers took their review to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, which published it — without reference to SAMHSA funding. Among the findings is that even low levels of consumption, or about one drink per day, raises Americans’ chances of dying or becoming seriously ill.

“These findings are not radical. They are rigorous — and commercially threatening,” Robert Vincent, who helped oversee the study as a former associate administrator for alcohol prevention and treatment policy at SAMHSA, wrote in an accompanying editorial . Vincent lost his job last year as part of sweeping cuts across federal health agencies.

After this article was published, the Department of Health and Human Services said the study published Tuesday was different from the one conducted by the government, and “NOT commissioned by, NOR reviewed, approved, or cleared by SAMHSA.”

While it’s true that SAMHSA did not approve the study published this week — the paper underwent independent peer-review — the agency oversaw the scientific review between 2023 and 2025. All of that work, which went into the draft report and later formed the basis of this latest paper, was funded by taxpayers and run by HHS, Vincent told STAT.

There are key differences between the reports, said William Maloney, a spokesperson for HHS. Those include additional authors beyond those on the scientific panel, explicit policy recommendations, changes to the analysis, and a downplaying of protective effects for certain outcomes, he said.

Federal officials reviewed a draft version of the report “alongside the broader body of available scientific evidence” when updating the nation’s dietary advice, HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard told STAT.

New guidelines — and a flipped pyramid — were unveiled in January and surprised some by dropping decades-old messaging on alcohol. Instead of telling Americans to stick to one or two drinks per day, they advised Americans simply to “consume less alcohol for better overall health.”

“The guidelines are informed by the totality of the scientific record, not any single report or analysis,” Hilliard told STAT. A scientific appendix published alongside the dietary guidelines, however, noted that officials relied on a different study, not the SAMHSA-led report, as the basis for their alcohol recommendation.

Historically, suggested drinking limits for men have been double that of women due to biological differences in how quickly the body processes alcohol.

However, available scientific evidence supports a gender-neutral recommendation in order to reduce men’s risks, the SAMHSA report found: no more than one alcoholic beverage per day for adults who drink. Another panel shaping the dietary guidelines arrived at the same conclusion in 2020, but the proposal was not adopted.

Science on alcohol’s health effects is particularly resonant at a time when Americans are drinking less and thinking more about their health, but when alcohol-related harms remain at high levels . Alcohol contributes to an estimated 178,000 deaths each year in this country. Drinking, especially heavy use, has been associated with a panoply of ailments and increased risk of death.

But the science is mixed on how small amounts of alcohol impact health. Just last week, a large review in the journal Nature Health found evidence that low-to-moderate drinking was tied to a reduced risk of some cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and dementias. On the other hand, even very low levels of drinking were associated with increased cancer risk, the study found. “Current evidence does not support sex-specific thresholds” for federal alcohol guidance, the authors wrote.

Trump officials’ decision to withhold a taxpayer-funded alcohol report has implications for public health, but it also raises fresh questions about scientific independence under the ad…