A historic shift in American drinking habits shows Catholic alcohol consumption reaching record lows, though scientific experts caution against attributing the drop strictly to religious or cultural changes.The share of Catholic adults in the United States who report drinking alcohol has fallen to 55%, according to a Gallup report authored by analyst Frank Newport.That marks a decline from the 2002–2004 period, when 79% of Catholics reported consuming alcoholic beverages.Over that same timeframe, self-reported Protestant drinking rates remained flat at 54%.HEAVY DRINKING SURGES AMONG AMERICANS IN ONE AGE GROUP AS OTHER GENERATIONS CUT BACK"Drinking has dropped significantly within both the group of those who have no religious identity and, in particular, among Catholics," Newport wrote in the analysis.However, experts urged caution when drawing sweeping conclusions from subgroup survey data.Dr.
Joshua Gowin, an associate professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who studies alcohol's effects on the brain, noted that self-reported polling figures can fluctuate based on sampling.Historically, Catholics were far more likely to drink than Protestants, but a sharp drop in Catholic drinking has completely eliminated that long-standing gap.(iStock)"There's definitely a general pattern of alcohol use decreasing across groups," Gowin told Fox News Digital."As far as the subgroups go, it wasn't clear or necessarily compelling to me that one group was showing a broad trend that wasn't reflected in the other groups," he went on. BRAD PITT SAYS HE CAN DRINK IN ‘RESTRAINED MANNER’ AFTER 7 SOBER YEARS, BUT EXPERT RAISES RED FLAG"It seemed like really only one data point showed that effect ...
which made me a little skeptical that this is a broader phenomenon versus a single survey sample."Despite methodological limitations in tracking specific religious subgroups, researchers agree that broader social and health trends ...