Zero Proof: Why some Americans are choosing sobriety
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Many of us have heard the terms “Dry January” or “sober-curious,” but some Americans are choosing to abstain from drinking entirely.
Based on a July 2025 survey from Gallup, 54 percent of U.S. adults say they consume alcohol. This is the lowest in Gallup’s nearly 90-year trend.
The Exchange is a whiskey and cocktail bar in South Bend, and it’s been around for more than a decade.
Jeff Byers, the general manager, says they’ve noticed fewer people choosing to drink. Their menu features a few zero-proof beverages.
“With those changes, you know, we've also tried to shift our menu, so we have mocktails that are on the menu year-round. And you know, it just helps bring in more business. So instead of just focusing on people that drink, now, people that might not go out, they come out too. They come out for the experience. They come out for a mocktail. So, you know, we've tried to just pivot as people's preferences change,” said Byers.
Frank Spesia is the Executive Director of the Alcohol & Addictions Resource Center in South Bend. He’s noticed more mocktails and non-alcoholic options.
Spesia says he thinks a lot of people do Dry January and realize they don’t really miss drinking alcohol.
“I think of these things as like barriers to entry, right? And that you could always go to a bar and ask for something nonalcoholic from the bartender. That was always an option. It's a couple steps removed,” said Spesia.
Spesia thinks the popularization of alcohol-free time periods, like “Dry January,” is awesome. He thinks a lot of people do it and realize they don’t really miss drinking alcohol.
“Just kind of getting to a point where this is then named as something that would be beneficial, clearly, has then been part of this, this tide shift of people realizing that ‘Hey, I feel better when I don't drink, right? I recover faster from my workouts; I wake up having gotten a better night's sleep.’ All those things are hard to realize unless you stop drinking for a little bit, and it's easier to do that when it's in kind of this big social movement context,” said Spesia.
Though fewer people may be drinking, Spesia says isolation and loneliness are a concern.
“It's good that people are drinking less, if that means that people are just staying home by themselves more often, we might just be walking ourselves into a different type of problem. But it's also, you know, a win is a win. And so, it is. It is good that people are drinking less, certainly,” said Spesia.
He also points to a sharp rise in adult marijuana use, including first-time marijuana use, especially as marijuana is legalized in more states.
“I mean, it's hard to compare apples and oranges in that way on what's better or worse for you. But you know, certainly swapping one substance for another isn't necessarily the win that an organization like mine would picture. You know, we're hoping that people would be substance-free and not just trading them off,” said Specia.
According to Spesia, the opposite of addiction is connection. So, if you are interested in drinking less, try doing it with someone.
According to that 2025 Gallup survey, for the first time in its trend, 53 percent, or a majority of Americans, say drinking in moderation is bad for one’s health. Moderation in relation to this data is defined as one or two drinks a day.
The same Gallup data shows younger people are drinking the least, with 50 percent of younger U.S. adults ages 18 to 34 saying they do drink.
Dr. Sushruta Nagarkatti, MD, is a Hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeon with Saint Joseph Health System.
“I think that's very responsible, especially of the younger generation to realize that alcohol is really a toxin, and even if you consume small amounts of alcohol on a regular basis, it's still a toxin to your body. It's a direct toxin to your liver. And the least amount of alcohol, or even no consumption, is probably the best recommendation,” said Nagarkatti.
Dr. Eric Knapp, DO, is the Director of Bariatric Surgery at Saint Joseph Health System. He says you can consume calories quickly when drinking alcohol.
“If you think about the caloric content of the various macronutrients, you have fat at nine calories per gram. You have protein and carbohydrates at four calories per gram. Alcohol is actually seven calories per gram, so it's really almost as calorically dense as fats,” said Knapp.
In terms of the lowest-calorie beverages, here’s what Dr. Knapp had to say about the best and worst, between beer, wine, liquor, seltzers, or cocktails.
“I'd say there really is no best. But if you have to make that choice, I think that it's --looking at the beers, the light beer is probably the safest bet. You can get around 100 calories per serving. Some of those calories are coming from the alcohol itself, as I was mentioning, and others come from the carbohydrate in the beverage. So that has a combination of alcoholic calories plus carbohydrate calories, compared to other harder liquors, which are mainly just calories from alcohol,” said Knapp.
Mixing alcohol with sugar, by way of sugary cocktails, is the worst thing to drink, because Dr. Knapp says it’s a lot of extra work for your liver.
Something Dr. Nagarkatti echoes, too.
“Essentially, what happens is that the alcohol toxin, it also affects the ability of the liver and the body to metabolize sugar, to metabolize those additives that you're taking with the alcohol and in those drinks,” said Nagarkatti.
Dr. Knapp says a bourbon is likely healthier than a sugary mocktail—because it's typically a smaller volume—and has no sugar. Whereas a sugary drink is probably a larger volume. But a sugary mocktail is still better for you than a sugary cocktail.
“I think sugary beverages are definitely not good for you, but if that's what you're doing to have fun in a social setting, I think if you can have a drink that has sugar but doesn't have sugar and alcohol at the same time, that's probably going to be a net win,” said Knapp.
Dr. Knapp says there’s a link between drinking less and the use of GLP-1s.
“So, it does something that we perhaps don't quite fully understand in the brain. The patients that take these medicines for weight loss describe it as turning down food noise, and I think that's where the magic is in terms of using this for other reasons, such as alcohol. So, if you can imagine a situation where you have less thoughts of food, you have less desire to eat, that thing that you thought was going to be so good, or your favorite indulgence, that's very similar to the thoughts or cravings for alcohol. And we do know that this works. It's been studied, and there's some literature, a limited amount of research, that does demonstrate improvements in, well, in decreased alcohol intake, I should say, in folks that are on GLP-1s,” said Knapp.
Dr. Nagarkatti says Americans are trending toward caring more about health and making decisions based on longevity.
“I think the crux of that is essentially to have as much protein, develop as much muscle mass, you know, control your sugar metabolism. And I think if you're fine-tuning to that extent, taking in a toxin like alcohol really doesn't make any sense,” said Nagarkatti.
If you are struggling with Alcohol Addiction or Alcohol Use Disorder, here are some resources:
- SAMHSA helpline: 1 (800) 662-HELP (4357)
- AARC website