“Does President Biden want to limit Americans to two beers a week?” a Fox News correspondent asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.
Asked to give context, Peter Doocy went on to claim that the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), Dr. George Koob, had said the U.S. may follow Canada and recommend just two beers a week.
Jean-Pierre replied that she “cannot speak to this” and “will leave it to the experts.”
A clip of the exchange has been widely shared, particularly among conservative news outlets, on social media this week.
Some commentators also seemed to suggest that the move might be mandatory.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, sent on August 26, 2023, by user @GigaBeers, and viewed more than 350,000 times since, said “Biden’s Alcohol Czar wants to limit you to TWO beers per week. YEAH, a huh, like we’re doing that! 😂”
The lack of a full response from Jean-Pierre, and the commentary around it, however, do not present the facts behind this claim. Koob’s comments were purely speculative based on a question about which limits could be revised.
Koob, whom Doocy mentioned, spoke to DailyMail.com last week, who asked how U.S. alcohol guidelines could change when they are revised in 2025.
Koob told the outlet that if alcohol consumption guidelines were to go in any direction, it would be in line with Canada’s, where new guidelines published earlier this year by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) recommended citizens limit alcoholic drinks to two a week.
“I mean, they’re not going to go up, I’m pretty sure,” Koob said.
“So, if [alcohol consumption guidelines] go in any direction, it would be toward Canada.”
The CCSA’s report states that by drinking two standard drinks or less per week, “You are likely to avoid alcohol-related consequences for yourself or others.”
But at three to six drinks per week, “Your risk of developing several types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer, increases at this level.”
Having seven standard drinks or more per week, it says, significantly increases the risk of heart disease or stroke.
The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting intake to two alcoholic drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less a day for women. A single drink is defined as either 12 ounces of a five percent ABV beer, eight ounces of a seven percent ABV malt liquor, five ounces of a 12 percent ABV glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 40 percent ABV distilled spirit.
The guidelines were issued by the U.S. departments of agriculture and of health and human services in December 2020.
Koob’s comments to DailyMail.com were not confirmation from the NIAAA, nor the departments of agriculture and health and human services, that such a recommendation would be made.
Newsweek has contacted representatives for these government departments and the White House via email for comment.
In 2018, a little over 5 percent of adults engaged in heavy drinking in the past year, 15.5 percent engaged in moderate drinking, 45.7 percent in light drinking, and 33.7 percent did not consume alcohol, according to the CDC.
Both Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, have said they are teetotalers.