On a Sunday night in November 1991, the CBS program 60 Minutes told a national audience that the French ate rich food, smoked more and exercised less than Americans, and still had less heart disease. It pointed to red wine as the reason. Red wine sales in the United States jumped nearly 40 percent the following year, according to Wine Spectator. Thirty-five years later, 6 percent of Americans say moderate drinking is good for your health.
The figure is from Gallup's Consumption Habits survey, taken July 1-19. When Gallup first asked the question in 2001, 22 percent called a drink or two a day good for you and 27 percent called it bad. Today it is 6 percent good and 51 percent bad, only the second year a majority has taken that view.
The opinion followed the research rather than the other way around. The International Agency for Research on Cancer placed alcohol in its Group 1 carcinogen category decades ago, alongside tobacco and asbestos. In January 2023 the World Health Organization published a statement in The Lancet Public Health concluding that no amount of alcohol is safe. Two years later, a U.S. surgeon general's advisory tied alcohol to seven types of cancer and recommended that bottles carry a warning label.
Readers have been paying attention. Gallup found that 86 percent of Americans have heard at least something about recent studies on alcohol's long-term effects, up from 79 percent in 2024. The share of adults who drink at all now stands at 54 percent, the lowest reading since Gallup began asking in 1939 and unchanged from last year.
Beer still holds a narrow lead as the drink Americans reach for most often, at 36 percent, with liquor at 32 percent and wine at 30 percent. Among drinkers 55 and older, wine is still the favorite.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
