I didn't realize my drinking was unhealthy until I tracked it — using the old government guidelines

• The Trump administration just announced its new dietary guidelines.
• It advised drinking less alcohol but removed previous guidance on how much is too much.
• Having a number to shoot for helped me cut back on my drinking.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced its new dietary guidelines. While the advice urged Americans to cut down on added sugars and processed foods as much as possible, its alcohol guidance was vaguer: Just drink less.

It's a stark departure from exactly a year ago, when a report from former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy linked alcohol consumption to multiple forms of cancer and shared that even moderate drinking posed health risks.

"The newly released guidelines do make an important statement: Consuming less alcohol is better for overall health," Tiffany Hall, the CEO of Recover Alaska, said in a press conference held by the US Alcohol Policy Alliance, a public health nonprofit, on Wednesday.

"However, the alcohol section is now much shorter, less specific, and avoids numeric guidance altogether," she added.

The administration cut recommended limits on how much to drink each day. According to the CDC's recent guidance, moderate drinking counts as one drink a day for women and two for men. The new guidelines also omitted warnings about longer-term health risks associated with drinking, though they advise against drinking while pregnant, using other medications, or if you have a history of alcoholism.

Knowing the risks scared me into action

While I personally find the general guidance easier to maintain than completely abstaining from alcohol (and frankly, a little more comforting), those numbers are what helped me cut back in the first place.

Early last year, I reviewed my 2024 journal, where I tracked my drinking for the year. When I crunched the numbers, I realized I drank above healthy limits more than half the time. This prompted some lifestyle changes, like alternating with N/A drinks or giving myself a hard cutoff — seven drinks maximum — for the week.

While I didn't score perfectly, I significantly slashed my unhealthy drinking in half. With it, I lost fat, saw improvements in my mood, and found it easier to stick to other healthy habits, like reducing my bedtime doomscrolling.

It's precisely those guardrails that helped me even understand what it would mean to drink less alcohol. Left to my own devices, I thought I was perfectly healthy.

Social drinking was my biggest challenge

Dr. Oz emphasized two key points in his briefing.

One was that you should not drink alcohol "in the best-case scenario" and to try to do so "very judiciously."

However, he noted that moderate drinking can be a "social lubricant," in line with how many centenarians around the world regard alcohol: something to enjoy with friends.

"There's probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way," he said.

Broadly, I agree. My drinking habits are entirely social. I enjoy cocktails with friends or splitting a bottle of wine at home with my husband. Among strangers, I'll usually come out of my shell halfway through a second Old Fashioned.

However, social drinking is also where I — and many people — end up going too far. I'll have my first margarita, feel euphoric as the alcohol spreads to my brain, decide to have another, and oh, ok, fine, I'll do a shot and sing the first karaoke song.

Without knowing that I should ideally cap it below seven drinks a week, or that I'm technically binge drinking if I have four or more in one day as a woman, I had no idea how healthy or unhealthy I was being — or that my day-to-day drinking decisions added up.

Bumpers help me stay in my drinking lane

While I haven't gone sober, I've gained so much awareness around my habits. I know my drinking weaknesses (vacations, weddings, cocktails with elaborate garnishes), and how I can cut back even more in 2026.

My goal is to limit myself to only a few alcoholic beverages a week, so I'm planning to keep those older guidelines in mind. Hall said some of the old guidance can be confusing or outdated. Even if I follow the CDC's guidelines and have only one drink a day, that would still put me (and women following those same rules) at an increased risk of developing breast cancer, which is something for me to consider.

I owe my lifestyle changes all to those guidelines I once found too draconian. It wasn't what I wanted to hear at first, but I'm glad someone told me.