We’re supposed to be keeping an eye on how much we drink, but how many of us really know what a unit of alcohol is?
With so many different drinks and glass sizes, from shots to pints – not to mention bottles – it’s easy to get confused about how many units are in your drink. Use this quick guide to work out how many units are in your favourite pint of beer or glass of wine.
The idea of counting alcohol units was first introduced in the UK in 1987 to help people keep track of their drinking. Units are a simple way of expressing the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink. One unit equals 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour. This means that within an hour there should be, in theory, little or no alcohol left in the blood of an adult, although this will vary from person to person.
The number of units in a drink is based on the size of the drink, as well as its alcohol strength. For example, a pint of strong lager contains 3 units of alcohol, whereas the same volume of low-strength lager has just over 2 units. Knowing your units will help you stay in control of your drinking.
Fourteen units is equivalent to 6 pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of low-strength wine.
To help you monitor your own drinking levels download the Drinkaware app from you smartphone appstore
