Doctors Reveal What Reasonable Drinking Really Looks LikeAnd It's A Bombshell!

With 40% of adults resolving to drink less in the coming year, according to a recent survey reported by Fox News, health experts are warning that there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to alcohol. They stress that each persons relationship with drinking is shaped by history, biology, tolerance and lifestyle, and that policy slogans or one-word prescriptions rarely capture that complexity.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a Pennsylvania-based oncologist and author of the new book "Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life," has argued that certain pleasures from dessert to a drink may not be wise daily habits, but can still have a place in a balanced life. "There has been a lot of research on alcohol," he said in a recent interview with "CBS Sunday Morning." "The safest level is probably zero. There are some studies where its half a cup a day, three cups a week."

Emanuel acknowledged that public-health absolutism collides with human nature and cultural norms in a country where social drinking is deeply ingrained. "On the other hand, 60% [to] 65% of the public drinks," he went on. "Youre not going from 65% to zero, so you have to give people reasonable advice."

From his perspective, the real danger lies less in the occasional drink and more in patterns of abuse that undermine both health and personal responsibility. Emanuel advised against binge-drinking or drinking alone, both of which are "really bad for you." "[But] if youre using alcohol as a lubricant for social interaction, which many people do, thats probably good," he said. "Youre getting some benefit from the social interaction."

That social dimension is not trivial in a time of rising loneliness, anxiety and social fragmentation, yet experts caution that what looks like harmless relaxation for one person can be a fast track to addiction for another. While drinking's stress-relieving factors may be helpful for some, indulging in alcoholic drinks can be risky for those with a pre-disposition to addiction, experts caution.

In a recent episode of "The Huberman Lab" podcast, Dr. Andrew Huberman and guest Dr. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine, explored the thin line between enjoying a drink and sliding into dependency. According to Huberman, who is also a Stanford University neuroscientist, up to 10% of people experience alcohol as a "dopaminergic," making them feel "spectacularly good."

For others, the body itself throws up warning signs that act as a natural brake on consumption. Others may drink and experience a cue to stop, like dizziness, nausea, "blacking out," severe hangovers or other negative effects.

That divergence in response makes blanket rules difficult to apply, even as researchers keep returning to the same sobering conclusion. "The safest level is probably zero." "Some people really can drink five or six drinks, and then the next day they're at work hammering away," Huberman said. "The conversation becomes very difficult to have, because it sounds like it's highly individual how people will react."

Still, there are clear red flags conservatives and parents in particular may want to heed, especially when it comes to protecting children and teens. One of the greatest risk factors for becoming an alcoholic is having your first drink before the age of 14, according to Huberman.

For a subset of people, that first encounter with alcohol can be a life-altering trigger. "I find that some people will have their first drink, and it's like a magic elixir for their physiology," he said. "And there are very few things that can get somebody like that to stop drinking, except the risk of losing everything."

Humphreys emphasized that family history remains one of the most powerful predictors of trouble, underscoring the importance of strong families and honest conversations at home. Humphreys said the biggest indicator of personal risk is whether alcoholism runs in someones family particularly if their parents were alcoholics. "The father-to-son link is the strongest one you see in genetics," he said. "Men drink more than women do whether they've got an alcohol problem or not."

Women, however, may pay a steeper physical price even at lower levels of consumption, a reality often downplayed in a culture that markets alcohol aggressively to all demographics. Drinking alcohol has been shown to be particularly harmful for women, as the risk of developing hormone-related cancers substantially increases.

For those without a strong predisposition to addiction, Huberman noted that some research points to limited patterns of consumption that appear relatively low-risk, though not risk-free. For those who are not predisposed to addiction, Huberman noted that some studies suggest that certain types of consumption are OK in moderation, such as drinking red wine or having a maximum of two drinks per week.

Humphreys, however, pushed back on the popular narrative that a nightly glass of red wine is a health tonic. "I would love to believe [red wine] is healthy," Humphreys responded. "It's not Why would there be a benefit to red wine that wasn't in other alcoholic beverages?"

He acknowledged that there may be narrow, organ-specific upsides, but argued that they are outweighed by broader systemic risks. "There might be some cardiac benefits, but we dont get to live our lives as single organs. We have a whole body," he went on. "If that's true, it's smaller than the cancer risk. So, your net is you're not going to get any mortality reduction from drinking alcohol."

From a public-health standpoint, two drinks a week is often framed as a tolerable compromise, but Humphreys was blunt that tolerable is not the same as good. Drinking two drinks per week such as a 12-ounce beer, 4-ounce glass of wine or a 1-ounce shot of liquor poses only a "very small risk" of health complications, but its not something Humphreys would recommend, as its "just not good for you," he said.

Yet both experts recognized that life is not lived in a laboratory, and that adults routinely weigh risk against reward in ways that reflect their values and priorities. Despite the risks, however, the experts acknowledged the stress-relieving and social benefits of having a drink. "Getting together with friends is enjoyable, enriching," Humphreys said. "Good food and good wine taste good, and I value those things. And there are many other decisions we make like that where we endure some risk because we care about something else."

Humphreys likened moderate social drinking to other voluntary risks that people accept in pursuit of meaning, beauty or community. "It's dangerous for someone my age to hike up a mountainside probably, but if the view is spectacular, I can say, Oh, I'm going to accept that risk." "Good food and good wine taste good, and I value those things."

What troubles him more than the occasional glass of wine is the way social pressure now cuts both ways not only toward drinking, but against those who quietly opt out. Whats become most dangerous about social drinking, according to Humphreys, is that some people feel they need to explain themselves when they stop.

Huberman agreed that abstainers often face suspicion or ridicule, a cultural reflex that undermines genuine freedom of choice. Huberman echoed, "If you don't drink at parties, or you refuse an offer of alcohol, people think there's something wrong with you."

Given the mounting data on alcohols risks from cancer to addiction Humphreys argued that declining a drink should be as unremarkable as turning down a cigarette. Given recent data on the risks of alcohol consumption, Humphreys said it should be simple to say no, much like opting not to smoke a cigarette. "Health is a reason people still accept, I think, as a legitimate [reason] for changing behavior," he added.

For conservatives who value individual liberty anchored in personal responsibility, the emerging message is not a call for sweeping bans or heavy-handed mandates, but for informed adults to make clear-eyed choices and to respect the right of others to say no. As more Americans resolve to drink less, the real cultural shift may come not from new regulations, but from a renewed willingness to prioritize health, protect children, confront family risk honestly and push back against a social script that treats alcohol as a requirement rather than an option.