Servings of beverage alcohol per legal drinking adult (21+) have been relatively stable since 1990 and are comparable to the levels of 1960, according to government data analyzed by bw166.
The analysis appears to raise questions about the motivation — or the depth of analysis — of members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee who recently recommended reducing the definition of moderate drinking for men to one standard drink a day from two.
The committee used data from the National Institute on Alcoholism & Alcohol Abuse that uses an age 14+ population base for their computation, bw166 noted. “If the purpose of using a comparison of the NIAAA data with a 14+ population was either to address underage drinking or binge drinking, the dietary guidelines do not seem the appropriate way to address these challenges,” bw166 said, dryly.
The research firm said it projects servings across all channels will grow between 1% and 2% this year, while the LDA population will grow 1.1%.