For years we were told that moderate drinking was fine. Maybe even good for us. A glass of red wine with dinner practically came with a little health halo floating over it.
Then the message started changing.
In 2025, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory linking alcohol consumption to at least seven types of cancer. Alcohol was identified as the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, behind tobacco and obesity.
That’s not exactly the same message many of us grew up hearing. And now the government guidelines are changing again.
It would be easy to turn this into another argument about who’s right, who’s wrong, who funded what, and which group got somebody’s ear in Washington. I’m not particularly interested in doing that.
Because there’s something much more useful to remember.
Your liver doesn’t read federal guidelines.
The Advice Changes. Your Biology Doesn’t.
Government recommendations change. Nutrition advice changes.
Sometimes that’s because the science gets better. Sometimes new evidence changes the way old evidence is understood. Sometimes reasonable people look at the same information and reach different conclusions.
That’s science.
And yes, politics and money can find their way into health policy too. Humans are involved, after all.
But none of that changes what happens inside your body when you drink alcohol. Your cells don’t check the latest government website first. Alcohol enters your body and your body has to deal with it.
We now have strong evidence connecting alcohol consumption with cancers of the breast, colon and rectum, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat, and voice box. And for some cancers, increased risk may begin around one drink a day or even less.
That’s worth knowing. Not panicking about. Not fighting about.
Knowing.
So What Do You Do With That?
That’s where I think health conversations sometimes go sideways. We learn that something carries risk and immediately divide into teams.
Alcohol is poison!
A glass of wine never hurt anybody!
Everybody picks a jersey and we’re off to the races.
What if we simply looked at the information and paid attention?
Peggy and I don’t drink anymore. I’ve written before about the funny way that happened. We never decided to quit. Somewhere along the road of eating differently, moving every day, sleeping better, and paying more attention to how we felt, alcohol simply disappeared from our lives.
We didn’t even notice we’d stopped until years later.
That’s our story.
It doesn’t have to be yours.
I’m Not Coming for Your Beer
If you enjoy a beer with friends or a glass of wine with dinner, I’m not hiding behind your chair with a cancer study.
Good grief. Nobody would invite me anywhere.
But I do think you deserve good information. And once you have it, you get to decide what to do with it.
Maybe nothing changes. Maybe you drink a little less. Maybe you notice that the one glass of wine you really enjoy has quietly become two or three you barely think about. Maybe you try going without it for a few weeks and see what happens.
How do you sleep? How do you feel the next morning? How is your energy? Do you miss the alcohol itself, or do you miss the ritual around it?
Those questions interest me a whole lot more than arguing about whether the government should recommend one drink, two drinks, or none.
You Get the Final Vote
I’ve become more skeptical of universal rules as I’ve gotten older. Not because experts have nothing useful to teach us.
They absolutely do.
I want the research. I want good doctors. I want people studying these things and telling us what they’re learning.
But I don’t want to hand them the final vote.
That’s mine. And yours belongs to you.
Take the information. Look at your own habits. Pay attention to your body.
Then make the decision that gives you the best chance of being strong, healthy, clear-headed, and able to enjoy this life for as long as possible.
The guidelines will change again. They always do.
Your body will still be there quietly giving you information.
Maybe we should listen to it too.
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