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Experts believe the modern rise in consumption of alcohol will lead to an epidemic of liver problems in a few years time. Most people know the UK govt's recommendations for safe consumption are 21 units a week for men and 14 for women, but how many of us know that a large glass of red wine is equivalent to 3 units of alcohol?
There have always been heavy drinkers around, but it does worry me when I hear the younger ones at work talking about how much booze they have on a night out. On a work function recently, one person had already had half a bottle of wine before she set out and then was buying alcopops for herself two at a time and must have drunk 9 or 10 WKDs before the evening was over. And she is not a lone case. There truly does seem to be an alcoholic time bomb ticking in this country.
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2106246,00.html
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How large is a "large" glass? What is a "unit" of alcohol?
It's long past due that these Government nitwits (on both sides of the Atlantic) actually identified the intake of alcohol in ounces or millilitres of pure aclohol. At 12.5 percent (typical of wine) a glass containing 188 ml would give you 23.5 ml alcohol and divvy up a bottle in to four servings. However, there are 175 ml glasses (four glasses per bottle with 50 ml for retained sediment) and 125 ml glasses (6 servings per bottle). So, how much alcohol is in "one glass of wine"?
Similar confusion exists with beer. In the US and the UK, the limits are defined in terms of "one beer". In the US, that's a 12 fluid ounce can of beer with a 3.5 percent alcohol content. To a UK beer drinker, "one beer" is a 20-ounce pint of beer with maybe a 6 percent alcohol level, so there's almost a 3:1 difference in alcohol consumed in "one beer".
Does anyone know what a "unit" is?
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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Frank , There was a very concise answer to your question in Wikipedia.
************** Formula
A unit of alcohol is equivalent to 10 millilitres (or approximately 8 grams) of pure ethanol, the active chemical ingredient in alcoholic beverages.
The number of units of alcohol in a drink can be determined by multiplying the volume of the drink (in millilitres) by its percentage ABV, and dividing by 1000.
Thus a pint (568ml) of beer at 4% ABV contains
Also, in the metric system of measuring, there is 1 unit in 1 litre of a 1% ABV drink.
Quantities
As a rough guide:
A very small glass of wine, a small glass of sherry, a single measure of spirits and a half pint of beer each contain about one unit, or 8 g (0.25 oz) of alcohol.
A smallish 125ml glass of red or white wine or half a pint of cider contains about one and a half units.
Strong pale lager may contain as much as two units per half pint.
A larger 175ml glass of wine contains two to two and a half units.
A 750ml standard bottle of 12% wine contains around 9 units. Many wines are actually around 14.5%, which is nearly 11 units per bottle.
A 500ml can/bottle of standard lager generally contains around 2.5 units. *************
I have to admit to being suprised at just how many units there were in various drinks and indeed how much they varied from drink to drink.
Jim
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It further confuses the issue when you realise that a fluid ounce in the US isn't the same as it is in the UK. We all learned (at least we engineers did) that "a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter". Since a pint is 20 fluid ounces, then obviously an fluid ounce weighs an avoirdupois ounce (why does the UK weight system call weight "have some green peas"?).
In the US, a pint of water is 16 fl. oz. and weighs a pound. Why, then, is a UK gallon only 1.2 US gallons? If the fluid ounce was the same in both systems, it should be 1.25. When you go back to the metric system, it works out that a UK floz is 0.96 of a US floz. They must do the volume/weight conversion at a different temperature.
Isn't this crap a good reason for us all to go Metric? I remember when the UK set up a Commission to evaluate the impact of the change to Metric. Initially it was called the "Metrification Commission". Shortly after it was founded, the name was changed to the "Metrication Commission". The reason given was there was no "if" about it.
They decided that to elimintate the beer drinkers' pint would cause a civil war, so the pint was formally redfined as a fraction of a litre. They also decided that the cost of changing all the road signs to kikometers and metres would be so horrendous, they redfined miles and yards in termos of metres. There was also a drive to eliminate the use of the word "fathom" as an alternative to "working it out" as a fathom is a nautical measure equivalent to 6 feet.
There was a good skit about a bloke buying wood. He wanted 2 x 4's, and was told that they didn't have those any more, the new term was "50 x 100". He said "OK, I need 10 of them 10 feet long". Again he was told that they weren't "10 feet" but the metric equivalent in length. Exasperated, he agreed to buy them that way. He then asked the price, and the salesman pulled out a ready reckoner and said "Now then that's (whatever number of feet) at 2 and three ha'pence a foot".
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
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Frank, you are so right that the whole weights and measures malarkey is a farce, esp that related to alcohol. Thanks for the info, Jim, that was very useful. I think most people probably regard a pub measure i.e. one pint of beer, one measure of spirits, one glass of wine as a unit, but this is far from being the case, as Jim's post shows. It doesn't help when a glass of wine can vary between 125ml - 250ml, depending which bar/pub you chose!
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It used to be muted that the biggest drinkers and smokers were the ones who should have known best, ie doctors. When you consider what they have to face sometimes it's no wonder.
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Noel, best wishes for your good lady`s recovery.
On the drinking habits of doctors etc. I always thought it was members of the religious abstention societies who were big secret drinkers, and who decried the evils of drink to all.
When we lived in Chorley we knew a delivery driver for a local brewery whose best customers insisted that he delivered their supplies of the evil drink quietly and parked away from the house so that it was not apparent where he was delivering.
Of course, there was the Sunday Night race we used to see in Chorley, when the Faithful had been to Evensong at St,George`s Church to decry the evils of drink etc, and then raced down St.George`s Street to get their favourite seat in Yate`s Wine Lodge at the bottom.
Still, things have changed since the 1950`s (I think!!)
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I can't ever remember the Church of England being against drink Per se (only drunkards). The methodists used to be but St Georges is a C0f E church or at least it is now.
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When my cousins came over on a visit from New Zealand in 94, they were amazed to see that several local church halls were licensed to sell booze. I think they're all Catholic ones, but then drinking and smoking are sins the RC church allow!
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Most Catholic churches have a 'club' attached to them
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