On Jan. 3, the surgeon general of the United States recommended cancer labeling for alcoholic beverages. As outlined in the advisory where the recommendation was made, this is due to alcohol being demonstrated to cause at least seven different types of cancer.
Not just binge drinkers, but also those who drink lightly have an increased cancer risk. According a World Health Organization report, “no safe amount of alcohol consumption for cancers and health can be established.” The surgeon general’s advisory states, “For certain cancers, like breast, mouth, and throat cancers, evidence shows that this risk may start to increase around one or fewer drinks per day.”
Yet the connection between alcohol and cancer is not widely known. In fact, as the advisory states, “less than half of U.S. adults are aware of the relationship between alcohol consumption and cancer risk.” This is due in part to a deliberate misinformation campaign and attempts at policy-shaping relentlessly waged by Big Alcohol.
Austin is in a unique position to be the epicenter of what comes next. As both an extraordinarily healthy city and as the city with a ZIP code with the most bars per capita in the country, Austin straddles the line of wellness and binge-drinking.
It has also become the hub of what Austin Monthly called a “sober revolution.” Several major non-alcoholic brands are headquartered here and several non-alcoholic bars (including my own) opened in 2024. Austin even has a non-alcoholic bottle shop, Dear Dry Drinkery.
Gone are the days of sugary mocktails. In are a wide variety of genuine alcohol alternatives that replicate both the taste and the effects of alcohol.
The urgency of the public health situation cannot be stated strongly enough. Ireland’s new cancer warning for all alcoholic beverages is blunt: “There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers.”
It’s time to dream and time to create alternative worlds beyond alcohol’s ubiquity.
It’s time to create alternative worlds beyond alcohol’s ubiquity.
Kava, a traditional soothing beverage from the South Pacific, is a great place to start. It has a remarkably similar effect to alcohol, has an “acceptably low level of health risk” according to the World Health Organization, and can already be found at several kava bars in the Austin area. In contrast to alcohol, “there is growing evidence that [kava’s] consumption could be associated with low incidence of cancer.”
The history of a colonized globe – Gandhi railed against alcohol as a form of colonialism – and the War on Drugs has left us with a strange bifurcation of recreational psychoactive substances, with alcohol and coffee ubiquitous, and everything else pushed to the sidelines. Fortunately – and despite regulatory roadblocks – many alcohol alternatives are regulated as supplements.
The urgency of the public health issue requires a variety of stakeholders to take bold action. We need new regulatory frameworks that allow these alternatives to be easily and legally available at bars and stores everywhere.
The goal of my company, Taano Elevated Beverages, and our bar on East Sixth in Austin, Taano House, is to bring “forgotten” plants and fungi back to prominence in a way that gives people a panoply of genuinely feel-good options. We’re committed both to a deep respect for the Indigenous contexts of these plants and fungi and to scientific rigor in our research and development.
To create a world where there’s not “nearly 1 million preventable cancer cases over ten years in the U.S.” caused by alcohol consumption, as the advisory states, we must dream big, but also identify personally exactly why we drink alcohol and find personalized alternatives that work for us.
As the local pioneer of non-alcoholic bars, Chris Marshall has said, “Alcohol is definitely having … a cigarette moment.” As this moment unfolds, let’s envision a joyous life for ourselves and others unencumbered by alcohol.
Joe West is the co-owner and co-founder of Taano Elevated Beverages and its non-alcoholic botanical bar on East Sixth, Taano House.
This article appears in January 17 • 2025.