You might want to hold off on that second drink. A new report recommends that men should limit their alcohol consumption to one libation a day.
The report from a government advisory committee, published in July, examines current nutritional science and proposes changes that the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services could make to the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a document that gives Americans advice on healthy eating and drinking habits.
The report suggested that officials change the current recommended alcohol limit for men from two drinks a day to one — the same limit it recommends for women.
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“The current guidance for men, two drinks, is not terrible,” said Timothy Naimi, a professor at Boston University. “But it’s clear that most of the time when men drink alcohol, if they can limit it to one drink a day, they would be better off health-wise than at two.”
Naimi, who is also a doctor and alcohol epidemiologist at Boston Medical Center, is a member of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — the body of nearly two dozen scientists from around the country who wrote the report.
The committee reported that men who consume up to one drink a day have a lower risk of dying from alcohol-related causes than those who drink more.
About 100,000 people die from alcohol consumption in the United States each year, according to the report. Drinking also causes between 3.5 to 5.5. percent of cancer deaths in the country and can lead to a number of chronic illnesses, including liver disease, pancreatitis, gastritis, and coronary heart disease.
Some Americans have begun drinking more during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a Morning Consult poll, 16 percent of 2,200 adults surveyed said they were drinking more now than before the pandemic hit the United States.
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“There are a number of indicators that alcohol consumption has gone up, but I think the thing to focus on is the excessive alcohol consumption that occurred before the pandemic,” Naimi said. “This is not new.”
One Australian study cited in the report found that men who drank about two drinks a day on average had a 2.5 to 5 percent increase in alcohol-related deaths compared to those who consumed only one drink per day.
“Changing the daily recommended limit would result in a modest but meaningful reduction in the risk of (alcohol-related) deaths among men,” Naimi said.
Women have a higher risk of dying from or developing health issues from alcohol consumption than men, researchers said. But the committee’s recommendation for a single-drink limit per day for women hasn’t changed.
“For any fixed amount of alcohol, women are slightly more at risk than men mainly because they’re smaller, but (the risk) is not that different at lower levels of consumption,” Naimi said. “If you see people drinking three, four, five, six drinks a day and more, then that difference between men and women splays out more.”
Binge drinking, or having five drinks on one occasion for men and four for women, accounts for about 88,000 deaths each year, according to the report.
The report said binge drinking, like drinking in general, has been on the rise in the United States. Of the individuals who consumed alcohol in the past month, about 40 percent binge-drink - some often multiple times a month.
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Those who binge-drink also have a higher risk of developing or dying from heart problems, researchers said.
“Overall, alcohol is an unhealthy substance,” the report said. “Alcohol can be consumed at low levels with relatively low risk, and is consumed by U.S. adults for a variety of reasons. However in terms of health, among those who consume alcohol, drinking less is better for health than drinking more.”
Caroline Enos can be reached at caroline.enos@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @CarolineEnos.
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