ALCOHOL FACTS

What are the lower risk guidelines?

No amount of alcohol consumption is completely safe, however by sticking within these guidelines, you can lower your risk of harming your health.

Men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week
if you do drink as much as 14 units in a week, don't 'save up' your units for 1-2 days
Spread your drinking over three days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week

If you want to cut down on your drinking, a good way to help achieve this is to have several drink-free days each week.

Drinking on single occasions

Drinking too much in one go can lead to accidents resulting in injury (causing death in some cases), misjudging risky situations, and losing self-control. You can reduce these risks by:

limiting the total amount of alcohol you drink on any occasion
drinking more slowly, drinking with food, and alternating alcoholic drinks with water
avoiding risky places and activities, making sure you have people you know around, and ensuring you can get home safely

Pregnancy and drinking alcohol

Doctors recommends that if you’re pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, you should avoid alcohol altogether to keep risks to your baby to a minimum. Drinking in pregnancy can lead to long-term harm to the baby, with the more you drink the greater the risk.

How many units in a drink?

A single unit of alcohol would equal for example ½ a pint of lager (3.5% ABV), or a small (125ml) glass of wine (10% ABV), or a small (25ml) glass of spirits Other typical drinks would equal in units:

One pint of 4.5% beer - 2.6 units
A medium glass of 12% wine - 2.1 units
A double shot (50ml) of spirits - 2 units
A small (330ml) bottle of alcopops - 1.7 units

Higher strength drinks have higher alcohol by volume (ABV) - and so are stronger in alcohol, contain more units and more calories.

Risk levels

The health risks start to increase when you go over the lower-risk guidelines. If you're drinking at high risk levels, you're increasing your risk of heart disease, cancer and hypertension.