o Sabor das Coisas: Alcohol units and guidelines

01/04/13

Alcohol units and guidelines

The lower risk daily guidelines

It can be a bit tricky to understand and remember how much alcohol is in drinks, and how this can affect our health. The lower risk guidelines can help with this. All you really need to do, if you choose to drink, is to stick within the guidelines below. There’s one for women and one for men.

No one can say that drinking alcohol is absolutely safe, but by keeping within these guidelines, there’s only a low risk of causing harm in most circumstances.

Women

Men

Should not regularly* drink more than:

That’s no more than a standard 175ml glass of wine (ABV 13%)

That’s not much more than a pint of strong lager, beer or cider (ABV 5.2%)

* "Regularly" means drinking this amount most days or every day.

Counting the units

Once you’ve got the hang of the lower-risk guidelines, then check how many units are in your usual tipple. “ABV” means the percentage of alcohol in the drink and you can often find this information on the side of the bottle or can. The amount of alcohol in drinks can vary quite widely, and it’s worth looking for versions of your favourite drinks that have less alcohol , which can also be cheaper and often have less calories.