Alcohol units

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 the units calculator to quickly calculate units in your favourite drink. ownload a drinks diary!" #, $%$kb& to track your drinking over a week.

'he idea of counting alcohol units was first introduced in the U( in )*+, to help people keep track of their drinking. Units are a simple way of e-pressing the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink. .ne unit equals )/ml or +g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour. 'his 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. 'he number of units in a drink is based on the size of the drink as well as its alcohol strength. #or e-ample, a pint of strong lager contains 0 units of alcohol, whereas the same volume of standard lager has 1ust over 2 units. 3ee the table below for more e-amples of drinks and units Calculating units Using units is a simpler way of representing a drink's alcohol content, which is usually e-pressed by the standard measure 456, which stands for alcohol by volume. 456 is a measure of the amount of pure alcohol as a percentage of the total volume of liquid in a drink.

The NH recommends!

7en should not regularly drink more than 089 units of alcohol a day. Women should not regularly drink more than 280 units a day. :f you've had a heavy drinking session, avoid alcohol for 9+ hours.

'Regularly' means drinking this amount every day or most days of the week.

;ou can find the 456 on the labels of cans and bottles, sometimes written as <vol< or <alcohol volume< or you can ask bar staff about particular drinks.

#or e-ample, wine that says <)2= 456< or <alcohol volume )2=< means that )2= of the volume of that drink is pure alcohol. ;ou can work out how many units there are in any drink by multiplying the total volume of a drink !in ml& by its 456 !which is measured as a percentage& and dividing the result by ),///. 3trength !456& - 6olume !ml& > ),/// ? units.

#or e-ample, to work out the number of units in a pint !%$+ml& of strong lager !456 %.2=&@ %.2 !=& - %$+ !ml& > ),/// ? 2.*% units

'o make things easier, use the units calculator to quickly calculate units and download a drinks tracker to your phone to keep on top of your drinking and get personalised feedback.

"rinks and units

4 ,%/ml bottle of red, white or rose wine !456 )0.%=& contains )/ units. 3ee the guide below to find out how many units are in your favourite tipple.

ABin, rum, vodka, whisky, tequila, sambuca. Carge !0%ml& single measures of spirits are ).9 units