David Clement Explains The Great Canadian Alcohol Guidelines Debacle

And how it’s impacting U.S. decision making

How much alcohol is safe to drink?

Right now, the U.S. government recommends two drinks a day for men and one for women — but that could be about to change.

The recommendations are being reviewed right now, and all the signs are pointing to the amount being lowered. Because of this, and how the committee’s work is unfolding, the guidelines process has been controversial.

David Clement of Canada’s Consumer Choice Center watched the exact same fight unfold in Canada in 2023, involving some of the same people, over much the same issues. 

David Clement, North American Affairs Manager, Consumer Choice Center

Here’s a quick summary of the issues:

• The U.S. is revising its alcohol guidelines. 

• The current safe level of drinking is two drinks a day for men, and one for women.

• The U.S. committee includes three of the Canadians who were involved in reconsidering Canada’s guidelines for 2023.

• Previously, the Canadian government said it was safe for men to have 15 drinks a week and women to have 10.

• Canada’s safe drinking level was revised down to just two drinks a week in total.

• This caused such an outcry, including from addiction specialists, that the guidelines were never adopted.

•  David Clement wrote several articles for the Canadian media about what went wrong.

• He also discovered that two of the Canadian researchers on the Canadian panel had ties to Movendi, the Swedish temperance group that reinvented itself as a public health NGO. A third had accepted travel and hospitality from them.

I’ve written up the story for WineBusiness Monthly.

OK, a couple of things. The podcast interview with David was edited, because we discussed some specific researchers and I couldn’t offer them the right of reply. I’ve put the discussion back into the following transcript, with an explanation of who, what and why.

Here we go: