The US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services put out a document every five years called Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Most Americans know nothing about it. We learn about the guidelines when food industry groups use them to “position” the use of their product. If the guidelines say to eat more fiber, it gets turned into a promotional tool for the people who sell broccoli, avocado, blackberries and other fibrous fruits and vegetables. The Dietary Guidelines are reviewed every five years by an advisory committee and new recommendations are made.

The current Dietary Guidelines for alcohol (2005) provide drinking guidelines that outline the safest way for people who already drink to consume alcohol: up to 2 drinks per day for men and 1 drink per day for women (2/1 daily consumption guidelines). However, the new Advisory Committee report proposes that alcohol consumption guidelines be based on a weekly rather than daily consumption average. Furthermore, the report would explicitly define “moderate” drinking as up to 4 drinks per day for men and 3 drinks per day for women (4/3 daily consumption guidelines) so long as the current average daily limits (2/1) are not exceeded over a week’s period of time.

So my question is this: What is wrong with you people? Is it that easy for you to put public health (your job in this case) second to the special interests of the alcohol beverage industry? Do you really believe people are going to keep a running tab in their head of how many drinks they have consumed over the past seven days so they won’t exceed their weekly average limit?

Here is what the alcohol beverage industry will promote: “Moderate drinking is good for your heart. Moderate drinking is defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as: “4 drinks a day for men, 3 for women.” Here is what people will remember: “4 drinks a day for men, 3 for women.” Everything else is noise. Under your wise tutorage, the beverage industry will actively “educate” the public and a whole lot of people will be “good to go” every day under very dangerous conditions. You ought to be ashamed for even suggesting this be done.

The body of research that refutes these new drinking guidelines is vast and deep. Pulling one paragraph out of a 16-page document from NIAAA is not enough evidence to warrant this kind of careless decision making on behalf of the American public.

When the independent non-governmental study on tobacco came out in 1964, it was a bare-fisted condemnation of the health impact of nicotine in any form of tobacco. In spite of findings, the federal government continued to subsidize tobacco growers and left it up to states and communities to educate and take steps to reduce access including tax increases. Today, every state is taxing tobacco to supplant state budgets which are running in the red.

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Drug-store chain Walgreens Co. is reversing a roughly 15-year-old alcohol sales ban by returning beer and wine to its shelves. Up until the mid-1990’s most Walgreens stores had full liquor sections, making the chain one of the nation’s largest liquor retailers. Maintaining these huge alcohol sections was viewed as too much effort even though alcohol comprised about 10% of their sales. Fifteen years later, Walgreens has decided it’s not too much effort and they need to boost sales because lipstick, cereal and over-the-counter medications are not getting the job done. By the end of 2010 Walgreens expects to stock alcohol in about 5,000 stores and apply for licensing in states where it doesn’t yet sell alcohol including Alabama and Georgia.

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