As a young mom, I gave up alcohol. Why more Americans are joining me. | Opinion

Americans are finally rethinking their relationship with alcohol. Gallup reports that only 54% of the U.S. population now drinks, the lowest rate in nearly 90 years. Three years ago, that number was 67%. Something has shifted

I’m among the fresh teetotalers. When I gave up alcohol nearly five years ago, the United States was five months into a pandemic − and deep into a collective binge. Churches were closed, but liquor stores were open – a metaphor for the times.

Even as COVID-19 dominated the headlines in 2020, alcohol quietly claimed almost 100,000 American lives. At its peak, there were close to 500 deaths per day from alcohol use.

Alcohol consumption surged during COVID pandemic

An RTI International study found that women with small children saw a 323% surge in drinking between February and November 2020, a higher increase than any other demographic.

With children ages 2 and 4 at the time, I fit neatly into this group. When I stopped drinking five months into the pandemic, I had no idea how bad things had gotten for others. Unbeknownst to me, I was part of a looming mass exodus from our nation’s favorite shared coping mechanism.

The new Gallup numbers suggest a change agent at play, with women and Generation Z the driving forces behind unprecedented decreases in drinking. Several factors, including a spate of new research and influential voices on the harmful health effects of alcohol, play into this.

A Journal of the American Medical Association study reported in 2024 that moderate alcohol use is associated with higher death rates in those over 60. The American Association for Cancer Research found that more than 5% of cancers in the United States can be attributed to alcohol use. If moderate drinking raises death rates and fuels cancer, why do we still shrug it off as harmless?

A 2025 U.S. surgeon general’s report said alcohol is “a leading preventable cause of cancer” and recommended updating health warning labels on alcohol containers to reflect this.

Data alone doesn’t always lead to action, but it helps. Eliminating alcohol fits in perfectly with a wave of public research on and interest in reducing toxins in food, products and technology. Public health campaigns focused on toxin reduction like Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) may also have influenced the conversation around alcohol.

Studies like one in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reveal that nearly 1 in 5 packaged foods contain synthetic dyes − evidence that helped push the United States to begin phasing them out.

Alcohol is a toxin that puts stress on our bodies

That raises an obvious next question: Why do we tolerate far more toxic substances, like alcohol? Alcohol is a toxin, and our bodies work overtime to repair the damage even small amounts inflict on our organs. If you’re worried about toxins in the body, it’s almost laughable not to start with alcohol.

Generation Z, born between 1997 to to 2012, might not be thinking about toxins. Some turn to marijuana. Others spend less time in social settings where drinking alcohol is common. Whatever the reason, the result is striking: less drinking.

“Alcohol tends to be a social drug, even for young people, so part of the decline in underage drinking could be related to less in-person socializing,” said George F. Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Koob, in Time magazine.

We don’t know yet how rising marijuana use and increased isolation will shape young adults in the long run. But if alcohol remains absent, we could see a generation with fewer cancers, drunken driving tragedies and less long-term organ damage – a glimpse of a healthier future.

For women, the decline is deliberate. Our bodies are especially vulnerable: Alcohol inflicts damage more quickly and disrupts hormonal balance. Faced with rising infertility and the hidden harms of toxic foods, women are taking back control of their health − starting with alcohol.

I was there when my grandfather surrendered his last breath to liver disease. I’ve watched my husband wrestle with post-traumatic stress disorder from a childhood scarred by alcohol. And I saw myself becoming someone I never wanted to be − a young mother drinking to cope.

At the same time, I couldn’t ignore the data: alcohol-fueled cancer, wrecked sleep, strained marriages and increased anxiety. I didn’t want any of that in my life.

The pandemic, and the years that followed, reshaped nearly every part of life: our work, marriages, families and health. Its negative consequences will linger. But if Americans continue to drink less, that shift could stand as one profoundly positive outcome −one that will reverberate for generations to come.

Ericka Andersen is the author of "Freely Sober: Rethinking Alcohol Through the Lens of Faith."