The US surgeon general’s warning of an increased risk of cancer from drinking alcohol might end up resonating most with younger Americans — who over the past years were already turning to mocktails and juices instead of alcoholic drinks.
It is unclear whether US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s suggestion to update warning labels on the risks of alcohol would be acted upon by US Congress, but, over the past decade, the youngest adults have been drinking less.
Brooklyn resident Amy Hudson, 35, said she cut back on drinking alcohol from multiple times a week to less than three times a month after she started having chronic migraines in 2021.
Photo: AP
“I found mocktails to be a good way to get antioxidants while incorporating anti-inflammatory foods into my diet,” Hudson said.
Ingredients like pineapple, cherry juice and ginger have helped manage her migraines, she said.
In 2023, 49.6 percent of Americans aged 18 to 25 had used alcohol in the previous month, according to US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration national survey figures, down from 59.6 percent from 2013.
Sean Goldsmith, chief executive officer of non-alcoholic beverage e-commerce platform The Zero Proof, said the surgeon general’s announcement comes as “more and more people are realizing that drinking alcohol is not good for you.”
He is in one of his busiest seasons of the year — “Dry January,” a month in which some people choose to abstain from alcohol following the holiday season.
About 90 percent of The Zero Proof’s shoppers are alcohol drinkers looking for healthier beverages, Goldsmith said.
More than 60 percent of his customers are women, and most are Millennials aged 28 to 43, he said.
Public health bodies like the WHO have increasingly turned their attention toward alcohol after making progress on stronger tobacco controls.
The American Medical Association in a Friday statement said that it has warned for years of the increased cancer risk from any alcohol consumption.
“Despite decades of compelling evidence of this connection, too many in the public remain unaware of alcohol’s risk,” it said.
Sara Martin, a 42-year-old salesperson in Los Angeles, is not participating in Dry January, but said mocktails are great options at work parties.
“I’m in an industry that drinks more heavily than I can keep up with,” she said.
She is glad younger people in her industry “are pushing back on the compulsory alcohol culture,” but does not think that labeling cancer risks alone would reduce drinking.
“It took massive public awareness campaigns to link cigarettes and lung cancer firmly in people’s minds,” Martin said. “But the labels would be the first step.”
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