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submitted 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

Americans continue to drink less alcohol than ever before, according to a new Gallup poll.

Only 54% of U.S. adults surveyed by the analytics firm in July said they ever drink alcohol—the same share as last year and the lowest recorded since Gallup began surveying Americans on this topic in 1939, says Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of U.S. social research.

“We saw a significant decline in people’s use of alcohol last year, but whether that was a one-time reaction or a trend, we had to wait and see,” Saad says. “This year’s result tells us that whatever is happening out there is a sustained change. Drinking has gone down across all age groups.”

More public awareness of alcohol’s health risks could be prompting Americans to drink less, the poll results suggest. A little more than half of Americans surveyed this year said that alcohol is “bad for health,” compared to the less than 30% of people who said that a decade ago; and 86% of people polled said they had heard of recent studies about the long-term health effects of alcohol—a 7% increase from 2024. Drinking alcohol has been linked to several forms of cancer, as well as higher risks of liver and heart disease, among other health effects.

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[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 1 points 15 hours ago

At the very bottom of the article: https://newsroom.uw.edu/news-releases/no-safe-level-alcohol-scientific-study-concludes/

which I compare to 80s-90s the recommendation of 1-2 drinks per day, versus in the 00s-10s was raised to 2-3 drinks per day, and now it's generally accepted to say no matter how much you drink, less is better, and none is best.

this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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