The alcohol industry spent the end of 2025 facing down a potential apocalypse. Booze lobbyists swooped in to help.
The beer, wine and liquor industry — reeling from declining sales — has long had to reckon with U.S. government recommendations that warned against alcohol consumption, suggesting adults who drink any alcohol at all “drink in moderation” and limit their intake to “two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less in a day for women.” A revision to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which was due at the start of 2026, could have proven disastrous if it came in even marginally more restrictive.
The government’s new advice is relatively vague, urging adults to “consume less alcohol for better overall health” and “limit” their drinking. It hangs no specific number of drinks on that recommendation. The guidelines also removed longstanding warnings that drinking could increase the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other maladies, and they don’t distinguish between men and women, who typically metabolize alcohol differently.