CDC’s definition of binge drinking grossly misguided

Thinking of enjoying a few glasses of wine or spiked eggnog at your holiday party this year? Even if you have a designated driver and only consume a few beers, according to a widely publicized study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that’s “binge drinking” and it’s costing the U.S. billions of dollars each year.

For most people, “binge drinking” has the connotation of problem drinking. It’s more than a few glasses of cider; it’s drinking to dangerous levels of intoxication and conjures up images of keg stands, sweaty fraternity parties and “shots all around” shouted at high volumes. Something the average American social drinker doesn’t often do. But a new report from the CDC claims nearly one in three U.S. adults are either excessive or binge drinkers.

So are we a nation of dangerous over-indulgers?

It depends on who’s counting. To get its “one in three adults drinks excessively” stat, the agency asked adults about their behavior in the past month. A woman who consumed more than four drinks on a single occasion was labeled a “binge drinker” — and the same goes for a man who had five.

And if you happen to roughly follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s dietary guidelines, you’d probably also be labeled an “excessive drinker.” The FDA notes the possible health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption and recommends one drink per day for a woman or two for men. But if you have much more than that, your drinking habits quickly turn from healthy to harmful. Meanwhile, the CDC defines “excessive drinking” as consuming eight drinks per week for a woman (just over one drink per day) or 15 for a man (just over two drinks per day).

So just to recap, one drink a day is healthy. There are seven days in a week. So if you are a woman and have (gasp) two glasses of wine one of those days, well, you’ve just wandered into the “excessive drinking” category.

Now use your common sense: Is having a nightly glass or two of wine with dinner “excessive?” Think of the most recent dinner party you hosted. You and your guests may have enjoyed four glasses of fine wines or interesting microbrews over the course of four hours. Did you think you were binging then? Hardly.

In its recent report, the CDC admits that most Americans who fit their definition of “excessive” drinkers are not dependent on alcohol. Yet the agency still argues that government intervention is needed to encourage Americans — even those without a drinking problem — to cut back.

This is a classic case of “defining deviancy down” in order to push an anti-alcohol agenda. Forget trying to target those with alcohol abuse disorders — the CDC is coming for your book club.

To encourage Americans to drink less, the agency (along with anti-alcohol groups such as the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and Alcohol Justice) is urging lawmakers to hike alcohol taxes. Of course, higher taxes don’t target those who are alcohol dependent; instead, they are regressive and hit moderate social drinkers squarely in the wallet.

Those who are addicted to alcohol — who should be the focus of these large government agencies — are the least sensitive to price increases. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that alcohol tax increases had no effect on the 5 percent of consumers who are the heaviest drinkers. Instead, higher prices encourage moderate drinkers to cut back and heavy drinkers to switch to cheaper brands.

The CDC’s quest to target moderate drinkers doesn’t stop with higher alcohol taxes. The agency also wants to lower the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for driving from .08 to .05. Such a low limit would prevent a 120-pound woman from driving after a single drink.

The average BAC for a drunk driver involved in a fatal crash is .16 — twice the current legal limit. If a .08 limit doesn’t stop these hard-core drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel, .05 is unlikely to succeed. Instead, such a low limit intimidates responsible drinkers from having even one drink before driving. Once again, the CDC is out of step with other federal agencies; officials at the Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration don’t support lowering the legal limit to .05.

Alcohol abuse is a serious problem, but the CDC’s focus on Americans without a drinking problem is grossly misguided. Instead of scaring holiday partygoers to put down their champagne, the agency should strive to help those with alcohol addictions get the treatment they need.

Sarah Longwell is managing director of the American Beverage Institute.