WASHINGTON (TND) — The U.S. could soon introduce stricter alcohol consumption guidelines, according to TheDailyMail.com.

A statement from Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Dr. George Koob to the publication Thursday indicates that the U.S. could soon follow a Canadian guideline advising its citizens to limit themselves to two alcoholic beverages per week.

“I mean, [alcohol consumption guidelines] are not going to go up, I’m pretty sure. So if [guidelines] go in any direction, it would be toward Canada,” Koob said.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction recommended in January that its citizens have no more than two drinks per week regardless of gender. The CDC currently recommends that, in the U.S., men limit themselves to two drinks per day and women to one.

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Current U.S. guidelines are under review but may not be updated and released until 2025.

Koob also told TheDailyMail.com that though certain kinds of alcohol in moderation can be beneficial, this is largely due to overall diet associated with the drinks.

“Most of the benefits people attribute to alcohol, we feel they really have more to do with what someone’s eating rather than what they’re drinking,” he said. “So it really has to do with the Mediterranean diet, socio-economic status, that makes you able to afford that kind of diet and make your own fresh food and so forth.”

In a statement to The National Desk (TND), Distilled Spirits Council Vice President of Science and Health Amanda Berger, Ph.D. called the possibility "extremely alarming and inappropriate."

"Dr. Koob’s comments calling for a drastic change to the federal recommendations on alcohol before the review of alcohol research has even begun undermines the scientific rigor and objectivity of the entire Dietary Guidelines process," Berger told TND. "It is extremely alarming and inappropriate for a federal official to predetermine the outcome of the Dietary Guidelines and suggest changing decades of precedent without the benefit of the scientific review to support such a sweeping move."

An April study from the NIAAA found that the average American consumed 2.51 gallons of ethanol, the alcohol found in beer and wine, in 2021, a statistic nearly as high as it was during the Civil War era.