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In 2022, both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Congress commissioned reports on the health effects of alcohol, to be provided to the committee that produces the United States government’s dietary guidelines every five years.
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In 2025, days before President Donald Trump took office, a draft of the two studies was published in the Federal Register for public comment. The health department’s study found that alcohol was very risky to health, while the study commissioned by Congress found that a small amount of alcohol might be slightly beneficial.
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Current dietary guidelines recommend that people who do not drink alcohol should not “start drinking for any reason.” The guidelines recommend men limit themselves to two drinks a day, and women limit themselves to one drink a day.
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In June 2025, Reuters published a story that said four anonymous sources claimed the committee responsible for producing the 2025-30 dietary guidelines planned to drop the recommended limits on alcohol consumption.
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In September 2025, Vox published a story alleging that Trump’s administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had “buried” the health department’s study. This is somewhat true — researchers were informed their final report would not be published in any form — and somewhat false — the draft version of the report was available to read online.
On Sept. 4, 2025, Vox published a story that claimed U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the White House had “buried” a major study on alcohol and cancer. The story detailed the convoluted path of the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, initially commissioned in 2022 by the nation’s health department.
Vox’s story claimed the study (technically a meta-analysis, or a review of existing research), which found an “increased mortality for seven types of cancer” at all levels of alcohol usage, had been hidden from public knowledge by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and Kennedy, his health secretary. (Alcohol has been classified as a carcinogen since as early as 1987, but that isn’t well-known).
The article spread on social media, and Snopes readers emailed and searched the site looking for more information about whether the administration had prevented the study’s publication. We contacted the health agency, the White House and scientists involved in the study for comment. We had not heard back from the White House at time of publication; the health department provided basic information on the study but did not respond to specific questions.
One version of the Alcohol Intake and Health Study was, in fact, publicly available. In the days before Trump returned to office in late January 2025, a draft version was published in the Federal Register to allow for public comment.
However, despite the study’s authors sending the government their final version in March 2025, according to Vox’s reporting, the final report had not been published, as of this writing. Three of the authors told Vox they learned the administration was not going to publish the study in any form, but did not say who gave them that information. (In an email to Snopes, one author, Tim Naimi, declined to elaborate but said he was “confident” that information was correct).
There are further complications to the story, too. The study was supposed to be included in a presentation to Congress on underage drinking, but the researchers told Vox their report would not be included. The study also was supposed to inform the United States’ dietary guidelines for the next five years, but Reuters reported in June that the government was planning to drop the recommended daily limit for alcohol from its guidance.
Given the complicated situation, we have elected to forgo a rating. Here’s what we know:
Dietary guidelines
Every five years, the Health and Human Services and Agriculture departments collaborate to release the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a list of recommended eating and drinking habits aimed to keep citizens healthy.
In order to prepare the guidelines, the government asks a committee of scientists and doctors to produce a comprehensive advisory report on the state of the average American health and diet and any recommended changes to the guidelines.
For instance, before 2020, the dietary guidelines recommended that men limit alcohol consumption to two drinks per day, and women to one drink per day. In 2020, the committee’s report recommended lowering the daily limit for alcohol consumption to one drink per day across the board. The report is only advisory, and the 2020 dietary guidelines kept the previous limit (archived).
The two alcohol studies
In 2022, the health department commissioned a report investigating the risks of alcohol consumption, called the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, conducted by a group of outside scientists. (This is the one the Vox headline claimed has been “buried”).
Later that year, Congress commissioned the National Academies to write a report investigating the risks of alcohol consumption, called the Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health.
The Vox story claimed that Congress commissioned the alcohol health study because of lobbying from the alcohol industry, which alleged the independent scientists were anti-alcohol. One co-author on the health department’s study told Vox that lawmakers claimed she had a conflict of interest because she “accurately described scientific research in the media.” Another author, Naimi, told Snopes he was “very proud” of his record, and that criticism from politicians and industry “comes with the subject matter” of alcohol.
Both studies were commissioned with the idea that they would be provided to the committee in charge of producing 2025-30 dietary guidelines. Vox also reported that the health department’s study was supposed to factor into an annual report to Congress on underage drinking.
When the studies were published in January 2025, in the days before Trump took office, the differences in their findings were clear. The health department’s study found consuming alcohol was very risky for health, while the National Academies’ study found consuming a small amount of alcohol might even be beneficial.
A spokesperson for the health department told Snopes via email that “a final version was subsequently provided … to HHS/OASH [the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health] and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for consideration as the development of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines, which remains ongoing.”
Snopes also asked the health department who was involved in the reported decision to not publish the final version of the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, and whether the dietary guidelines committee was considering dropping its guidance on a daily limit for alcohol consumption, as reported by Reuters. We did not receive a response to those questions.
Sources:
Alcohol and Cancer Risk Fact Sheet – NCI. cgvArticle. 14 Jul. 2021, https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet.
Calonge, Bruce N., and Katrina Baum Stone, editors. Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health. With Committee on Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health et al., National Academies Press, 2025. National Academies Press, https://doi.org/10.17226/28582.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans. “Guidance on Alcoholic Beverages in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” Dietary Guidelines for Americans, https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/alcohol/info#what-does-the-dietary-guidelines-say-about-alcoholic-beverages-.
Fokom Domgue, Joël, et al. “Public Awareness of the Association Between Alcohol and Cancer in the US.” JAMA Oncology, vol. 11, no. 7, Jul. 2025, p. 789. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.1146.
ICCPUD’s Study on Alcohol Intake and Health. 11 Mar. 2025, https://www.samhsa.gov/substance-use/prevention/iccpud/alcohol-intake-health-study.
Release, MD Anderson News. “Most Americans Unaware of Cancer Risks Associated with Drinking Alcohol.” MD Anderson Cancer Center, https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/most-americans-unaware-of-cancer-risks-associated-with-drinking-.h00-159776445.html. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
“Request for Public Comments on Reports on Alcoholic Beverages and Health To Inform the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030.” Federal Register, 15 Jan. 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/15/2025-00416/request-for-public-comments-on-reports-on-alcoholic-beverages-and-health-to-inform-the-dietary.
Rumney, Emma, et al. “Exclusive: US to Drop Guidance to Limit Alcohol to One or Two Drinks per Day, Sources Say.” Reuters, 18 Jun. 2025. Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-drop-guidance-limit-alcohol-one-or-two-drinks-per-day-sources-say-2025-06-18/.
Scott, Dylan. “Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House Buried a Major Study on Alcohol and Cancer. Here’s What It Shows.” Vox, 4 Sep. 2025, https://www.vox.com/health/460086/rfk-jr-trump-maha-cancer-alcohol-study-health.