4 ms·

It's frustrating that the definition of "drinks" varies and even when defined is not easy to adjust for various types of alcohol. So much easier to measure by u

It's frustrating that the definition of "drinks" varies and even when defined is not easy to adjust for various types of alcohol. So much easier to measure by units of alcohol. Just multiply ml of drink by percentage of alcohol and divide by 1000.

0_____0 2y ago
It is widely standardized as 1 drink = 14g of alcohol, a definition that isn't affected by type of drink.
- dchuk 2y ago
  Who on earth knows what 14g of alcohol is in terms of visiting a bar?
  - ab71e5 2y ago
    Beer is about 5%, so 14 times 20 = 280ml of beer, pretty standard beer glass size
    - dehrmann 2y ago
      Liquor is around 40% alcohol, and a shot is supposed to be 1.5 oz, so 17g. A bit more than a standard drink, but not far off.
      - hug 2y ago
        > a shot is supposed to be 1.5 oz There is no standard definition of a shot. Serves in the US will vary wildly, as will serves across Europe. In Australia, a shot is 30ml (close enough to 1 oz to make no difference) which is exactly one standard drink or 10g of alcohol, assuming straight spirit.
        dehrmann 2y ago
        There's a bar I used to go to that has Whiskey Wednesdays. They're entire whiskey menu was half off. What they don't tell you (unless you ask) is they pour 1 oz shots instead of 1.5.
    - PontifexMinimus 2y ago
      In Britain the standard glass size is 568 ml, i.e. a pint.
      - satvikpendem 2y ago
        That's about two drinks, then.
      - hug 2y ago
        Having not traveled to the UK, is a half pint not also a fairly standard size? Pubs in Melbourne generally serve pints and "pots", aka half-pints.
        PontifexMinimus 2y ago
        You can buy beer in halfs, but people more usually buy a pint.
  - MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
    12 oz of 5% alcohol by volume water (let's say beer) has what mass of alcohol? 0.05 * (12 oz * ~30 mL/oz * ~800 mg alcohol / mL) = ~14 grams alcohol
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    If it’s prepackaged (not from a tap), it’ll say on the packaging how many standard drinks it is.
- quicklime 2y ago
  Where I live, and it seems in most places in the world, a standard drink is 10g of alcohol. > The definition of what constitutes a standard drink varies very widely between countries,[2] with what each country defines as the amount of pure alcohol in a standard drink ranging from 8 to 20 grams. > The sample questionnaire form for the World Health Organization's Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) uses 10 g (0.35 oz),[3] and this definition has been adopted by more countries than any other amount. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink
  - koolba 2y ago
    > Where I live, and it seems in most places in the world, a standard drink is 10g of alcohol. That is a weak pour. Not even an ounce of hooch. I definitely would not go back to that bar.
    - quicklime 2y ago
      One problem with the idea of a “standard drink” is that what people typically get at a bar (eg a pint of beer) is actually a fair bit more than a standard drink. It’s unrelated to a typical pour.
- PontifexMinimus 2y ago
  Note that a 568 ml pint of beer of 5% strength is by this definition 2 drinks. 4 pints over a week is basically nothing, and if they are saying it causes ill health, I don't believe them. When I was a student I drank 10 times that amount, so did many of my friends, without any apparent ill effects.
  - satvikpendem 2y ago
    > Note that a 568 ml pint of beer of 5% strength is by this definition 2 drinks. Yes it is. I can always tell the difference between drinking a can of it versus a pint, it definitely does feel like twice the effects. > if they are saying it causes ill health, I don't believe them I mean you can believe whatever you want but the scientific consensus is that any amount of alcohol is bad for you [0]. Just because you and your friends didn't have ill effects does not mean that it was actually good or even neutral for you all, and statistically and biologically it's been shown to not be so either. [0] https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-...
    - anon7725 2y ago
      There’s probably no safe limit of driving a car or using a step ladder. Alcohol has been with us since the beginning and will probably be with us until the end. The point of these studies should be to make people aware of the risks and motivate them to make appropriate choices. But part of the understanding of risk should be that there is a floor below which something else will most assuredly kill you. Is that floor 10 drinks per week? 2? Who knows.
- NaOH 2y ago
  As a reference for folks, 14g of a liquid that pours like water is one tablespoon.
anyfoo 2y ago
Either way, I struggle to find a likely definition of "drinks" where 8 per week does not seem excessive. Like even if "half a pint of beer" is the definition (unlikely), that means drinking 4 pints of beer per week, throughout a long time? I.e. not just for 2 weeks in a row or so? That does not fit my definition of "social drinking" anymore. And mind you that that's a purposefully underestimating assumption. The actual definition of a drink is likely larger than half a pint of beer.
- hyperadvanced 2y ago
  I think a bog standard IPA is about 2 “units” of alcohol. I like the old alcoholic “I’ll only have one or two” and it’s a wine glass filled to the brim or a mason jar half full of whiskey
  - intrasight 2y ago
    I've recently had to admit to myself that my standard can of IPA is in fact two beers.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  Whether 8 standard drinks per week becomes heavy or not would seem to depend on one's own body mass.
- zeroonetwothree 2y ago
  Most people don’t think that one per day is excessive. 8 is only a bit more than that.
- thot_experiment 2y ago
  Always interesting to see different perspectives, visiting my aunt (almost 70yo) it was half a liter of beer with lunch, and another half with dinner as kind of just a normal thing. Maybe not every day but also some days you'll have another after dinner. Nobody thinks twice about that level of consumption, there is zero negative stigma. Even if someone gets a little drunk most evenings it's not thought of as a problem, work meetings are had over beers after lunch. Life expectancy exceeds that of the United States, so personally to have someone say 8 beers a week is excessive is mindboggling to me.

0_____0 2y ago

It is widely standardized as 1 drink = 14g of alcohol, a definition that isn't affected by type of drink.

dchuk 2y ago
Who on earth knows what 14g of alcohol is in terms of visiting a bar?
- ab71e5 2y ago
  Beer is about 5%, so 14 times 20 = 280ml of beer, pretty standard beer glass size
  - dehrmann 2y ago
    Liquor is around 40% alcohol, and a shot is supposed to be 1.5 oz, so 17g. A bit more than a standard drink, but not far off.
    - hug 2y ago
      > a shot is supposed to be 1.5 oz There is no standard definition of a shot. Serves in the US will vary wildly, as will serves across Europe. In Australia, a shot is 30ml (close enough to 1 oz to make no difference) which is exactly one standard drink or 10g of alcohol, assuming straight spirit.
      - dehrmann 2y ago
        There's a bar I used to go to that has Whiskey Wednesdays. They're entire whiskey menu was half off. What they don't tell you (unless you ask) is they pour 1 oz shots instead of 1.5.
  - PontifexMinimus 2y ago
    In Britain the standard glass size is 568 ml, i.e. a pint.
    - satvikpendem 2y ago
      That's about two drinks, then.
    - hug 2y ago
      Having not traveled to the UK, is a half pint not also a fairly standard size? Pubs in Melbourne generally serve pints and "pots", aka half-pints.
      - PontifexMinimus 2y ago
        You can buy beer in halfs, but people more usually buy a pint.
- MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
  12 oz of 5% alcohol by volume water (let's say beer) has what mass of alcohol? 0.05 * (12 oz * ~30 mL/oz * ~800 mg alcohol / mL) = ~14 grams alcohol
- Gigachad 2y ago
  If it’s prepackaged (not from a tap), it’ll say on the packaging how many standard drinks it is.
quicklime 2y ago
Where I live, and it seems in most places in the world, a standard drink is 10g of alcohol. > The definition of what constitutes a standard drink varies very widely between countries,[2] with what each country defines as the amount of pure alcohol in a standard drink ranging from 8 to 20 grams. > The sample questionnaire form for the World Health Organization's Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) uses 10 g (0.35 oz),[3] and this definition has been adopted by more countries than any other amount. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink
- koolba 2y ago
  > Where I live, and it seems in most places in the world, a standard drink is 10g of alcohol. That is a weak pour. Not even an ounce of hooch. I definitely would not go back to that bar.
  - quicklime 2y ago
    One problem with the idea of a “standard drink” is that what people typically get at a bar (eg a pint of beer) is actually a fair bit more than a standard drink. It’s unrelated to a typical pour.
PontifexMinimus 2y ago
Note that a 568 ml pint of beer of 5% strength is by this definition 2 drinks. 4 pints over a week is basically nothing, and if they are saying it causes ill health, I don't believe them. When I was a student I drank 10 times that amount, so did many of my friends, without any apparent ill effects.
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  > Note that a 568 ml pint of beer of 5% strength is by this definition 2 drinks. Yes it is. I can always tell the difference between drinking a can of it versus a pint, it definitely does feel like twice the effects. > if they are saying it causes ill health, I don't believe them I mean you can believe whatever you want but the scientific consensus is that any amount of alcohol is bad for you [0]. Just because you and your friends didn't have ill effects does not mean that it was actually good or even neutral for you all, and statistically and biologically it's been shown to not be so either. [0] https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-...
  - anon7725 2y ago
    There’s probably no safe limit of driving a car or using a step ladder. Alcohol has been with us since the beginning and will probably be with us until the end. The point of these studies should be to make people aware of the risks and motivate them to make appropriate choices. But part of the understanding of risk should be that there is a floor below which something else will most assuredly kill you. Is that floor 10 drinks per week? 2? Who knows.
NaOH 2y ago
As a reference for folks, 14g of a liquid that pours like water is one tablespoon.

anyfoo 2y ago

Either way, I struggle to find a likely definition of "drinks" where 8 per week does not seem excessive. Like even if "half a pint of beer" is the definition (unlikely), that means drinking 4 pints of beer per week, throughout a long time? I.e. not just for 2 weeks in a row or so? That does not fit my definition of "social drinking" anymore. And mind you that that's a purposefully underestimating assumption. The actual definition of a drink is likely larger than half a pint of beer.

hyperadvanced 2y ago
I think a bog standard IPA is about 2 “units” of alcohol. I like the old alcoholic “I’ll only have one or two” and it’s a wine glass filled to the brim or a mason jar half full of whiskey
- intrasight 2y ago
  I've recently had to admit to myself that my standard can of IPA is in fact two beers.
jeffbee 2y ago
Whether 8 standard drinks per week becomes heavy or not would seem to depend on one's own body mass.
zeroonetwothree 2y ago
Most people don’t think that one per day is excessive. 8 is only a bit more than that.
thot_experiment 2y ago
Always interesting to see different perspectives, visiting my aunt (almost 70yo) it was half a liter of beer with lunch, and another half with dinner as kind of just a normal thing. Maybe not every day but also some days you'll have another after dinner. Nobody thinks twice about that level of consumption, there is zero negative stigma. Even if someone gets a little drunk most evenings it's not thought of as a problem, work meetings are had over beers after lunch. Life expectancy exceeds that of the United States, so personally to have someone say 8 beers a week is excessive is mindboggling to me.