What’s in That Drink? Why Standard Drink Size Matters
What’s in that drink? And why does it matter?
The most visited post on my blog is Alcohol by Volume (ABV) and “Proof” Explained. It’s no wonder.
People are desperate for information about drink sizes and what makes one drink more potent than another. They are desperate to figure out why their loved one, friend, coworker, or fellow student gets so drunk, even though they’ve only had a “couple.” This need to answer these questions has been true for years because people don’t generally understand it’s the ethyl alcohol chemicals in the alcoholic beverages that cause the problems when a person drinks too much.
For these reasons, I participated in KQED’s Perspectives, May 15, 2010, with the following perspective.
What’s in that drink?
Understanding whats in that drink – in other words, Alcohol By Volume (ABV), can help a person stay in control of their behaviors when they drink. It can help those in their sphere protect themselves from the behaviors when they drink too much.
We know how many trans-fats are in a serving of butter and how many calories are in a serving of pasta, but most of us don’t really know how much alcohol is in that drink.
A margarita, for example, may contain two to three ‘standard drinks,’ and a bottle of table wine contains five. This means a person having a margarita and sharing a bottle of wine may believe they have only had a ‘couple’ when in reality they’ve had four to six.
For those of us who choose to drink alcohol and want to keep our number of drinks within the health and safety limits, we need information. As I’ve learned, measuring alcohol consumption is less about the number of glasses than it is about the number of standard drinks in each glass. Five ounces of table wine, 12 ounces of beer and 1.5 ounces of hard liquor are all the equivalent of one standard drink. Thus, a Long Island Iced Tea at one location could contain two to three standard drinks, and a couple of stiff vodkas-on-the-rocks at another could put a woman into the binge-drinking category.
If it’s important enough to tell consumers about trans-fats and calories, it should be equally important to tell them about their alcohol intake. After all, a lifetime of trans-fats may shorten your life span measurably, but one night of heavy drinking and the embarrassing, hurtful or dangerous behaviors that can occur, could adversely change a life forever.
We need legislation that expands alcoholic beverage labels to include the number of standard drinks per container or serving and requires restaurants and bars to do the same on their menus. Sure it will mean all bartenders have to pour their drinks as their establishment has labeled them; just like packaged food serving contents must meet their labels. And, yes, some people won’t want to know how much they’re drinking — just like some people don’t want to know how many calories are in the bag of chips they eat.
But with a standard drink label, the person who wants to keep it to ‘a drink or two’ will know to skip the margarita if they plan to share a bottle of wine.
For More About Drink Sizes and What’s Considered Normal Drinking…
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has a website titled Rethinking Drinking. There you will can find out what’s considered “normal” or “low-risk” drinking. You can also take a two-question screen to learn more about your own (or someone else’s) drinking pattern. Lastly, you’ll find two online calculators that will help you determine the amount of ethanol (ethyl alcohol) – in other words, the alcohol by volume – in various types of alcoholic beverages and containers. One is the Drink Size Calculator and the other is the Cocktail Content Calculator.
As always, feel free to send me an email at lisaf@breakingthecycles.com to arrange a phone call (no charge) to talk about your additional questions.
Lisa Frederiksen
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