The US may be setting new alcohol limits. Here's what it means for you...

Headlines recently blared warnings that “Biden’s alcohol czar” was “telling” Americans to limits their drinking to 2 drinks per week.

First of all, let’s get one thing straight: no one is going to limit your alcohol consumption for you in the United States. It was tried once: it’s called Prohibition, and it failed spectacularly.

What DOES exist are guidelines provided by governments around the world about suggested weekly and sometimes daily drinking limits to limit your health risks. These guidelines vary wildly by country: Ireland (perhaps to no one’s surprise) is on the higher end, with 17 drinks per week for men and 11 for women; Canada recently changed its guidelines to just 2 drinks per week, for both men and women.

Those low-risk drinking guidelines are what is up for review in the United States in 2025, and apparently, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is considering moving from its current guidelines toward Canada’s much lower ones.

Here’s what it means for you:

1. Less is always better: The NIAAA is considering changing its guidelines because of a growing body of research says that no level of alcohol consumption is fully safe. However, even limiting your consumption to the old recommended guidelines (14 per week for men, 7 for women) can meaningfully reduce your long-temr health risks from drinking. What are those? Well…

2. There are serious long-term health risks from drinking: Regular long-term alcohol consumption can not only cause liver damage, but can meaningfully increase your risk of developing many types of cancer, as well as heart disease. If you’ve been drinking heavily for a long time, talk to your doctor about the health impacts. You may be surprised.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, an insightful drink tracking system that helps you understand why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. We’ll help you stick to a weekly limit that reduces your health risks from drinking. Plus, it’s completely anonymous - even we don’t know who our users are, and we will never ask! Start your journey to long-term health today - get the app!

What is a "drink"?

When figuring out if you’re drinking too much, you might look up something like “how many drinks is too many?”, or “how many drinks per week to stay healthy?”

When you do so, you’re likely to realize that many definitions rely on a certain number of drinks. But what is a drink? After all, the gigantic bachelorette party jug full of strawberry daiquiri certainly seems to get you more drunk than the tame glass of wine at home.

So: what is a drink, and how many is too many? The guidelines for moderate or healthy drinking vary by country, it turns out. We’ve sampled just a few in our guide here:

US: (Source: NIAA)

• What is a drink? A drink is a 5oz glass of wine, a 12-oz glass of beer, or 1 shot of liquor (so cocktails that are doubles count as doubles!). This is because all of those contain roughly 14g of alcohol based on typical % by volume (12%, 5%, and 40%, respectively).

• What is healthy drinking? Healthy drinking (or low-risk drinking for developing alcohol use disorder) means:

  • For men: no more than 14 drinks per week or 4 per day

  • For women: no more than 7 drinks per week or 3 per day

Canada: Canada’s system is similar to that of the US, with distinct limits for men and women, but has higher weekly and lower daily limits. (Source: Canadian Center on Substance Abuse)

• What is a drink? A drink is a 12oz glass of beer, a 5oz glass of wine, or a 1.5 oz shot. All of those contain roughly 14g of alcohol.

• What is healthy drinking?

  • For men: no more than 15 drinks per week or 3 per day

  • For women: no more than 10 drinks per week or 2 per day

UK: The UK guidelines are stricter (actually some of the strictest on record), and don’t vary by gender. (Source: NHS)

• What is a drink? The UK thinks of alcohol in terms of units, not drinks. A unit represents 8 grams of pure alcohol, so a lot less (about half the size, actually) than the US standard drink at 14g.

• What is healthy drinking? Healthy drinking is no more than 14 units of alcohol a week. It’s a little harder to do the math, but that’s about 8 5oz glasses of wine, 12oz glasses of beer, or 1.5oz shots per week.

Australia: Australia splits the difference, with a UK-like non-gendered units-based system that is closer to the same definition of a ‘drink’ that Canada and the US use.

• What is a drink? A drink is 10g of pure alcohol, lower than the US/Canadian definition. That means a 1.5oz shot is about 1.4 drinks, as is a 5oz glass of wine or 12oz glass of beer.

• What is healthy drinking? The guidance is simplest of all - no more than 2 drinks a day, for anyone (which translates to no more than 14 per week). That’s about 10 5oz glasses of wine, 12oz glasses of beer, or 1.5oz shots per week.

There you have it. Somewhere between 8 and 15 drinks a week is considered low risk, depending on your gender, based on current guidance.

If you are looking to quit or cut back on drinking, you can set a limit and track your drinking against it in Drinker’s Helper. Check it out and download it here.