It's in our culture...
Throughout history, drinking alcohol has been seen as a part of our national culture in the UK. Today, alcohol is regularly with us when we unwind, socialise, celebrate and even commiserate. For some cultures and religions – such as Islam, Buddhism, Quakerism – drinking alcohol goes against their beliefs
So what's the recipe...
The type of alcohol that features in our alcoholic drinks is a chemical called ethanol. To make alcohol, you need to put grains, fruits or vegetables through a fermentation process. The yeast or bacteria react with the sugars in food creating ethanol and carbon dioxide. A drink’s alcohol content is affected by how long it’s left to ferment. Wine and cider are made by fermenting fruit while beer and spirits are made by fermented cereals such as barley and rye. Spirits are also distilled, where some of the water is removed, leaving a stronger concentration of alcohol and flavour.
Measuring alcoholic units...
For consistency, alcohol consumption is measured in units A unit of alcohol is in fact 10ml of pure alcohol. The number of units in a drink of course depends on it's strength basically how much that pure alcohol has been diluted. Alcohol by volume (ABV) is the measure of the strength of the drink. So 13 ABV which might appear on a bottle of wine is 13% pure alcohol.
It takes the human body about one hour to process one unit of alcohol. That's half a pint of beer an hour. And given that the rate of consumption can be faster than the rate the alcohol is processed by the body, it can be quite easy to have alcohol in the blood half a day later.
Oh and there are calories too...
Alcoholic drinks contains calories. Our bodies need 2500 a day for a male and 2000 for a female. That does vary of course with or size and shape and the extent of exercise. A bottle of red wine contains around 700 calories, that's just three large glasses of wine (250ml). That's nearly one third of the daily female calorie intake, and nearly a quarter for a male. To make things worse, these calories are know as "empty" calories, as don't even contain any of the body's necessary nutrients or minerals.
The Guidelines...
From the first drink, that alcohol starts affecting both your body and mind. After one or two drinks you may start feeling more sociable, but drink too much and basic human functions, such as walking and talking, become much harder. Hence the government has guidelines on drinking alcohol. In short it's 3.5 units a day for a man and 2.5 units a day for a woman. Here's some examples:
- 1 unit: 25ml measure of spirit (40% alcohol), 50ml glass of sherry, port or vermouth (20% alcohol), ½ pint beer, cider or lager (3.5% alcohol)
- 1.5 units: 125ml glass of wine (12% alcohol)
- 2 units: 175ml glass of wine (12% alcohol), 1 pint beer, lager or cider (3.5% alcohol)
The Booze News...
It looks likes those guidelines are reaching their own sell by date. It's emerging that those guidelines might not be so right as originally thought.
The Daily Telegraph (1.1.13) reports that 'government alcohol guidelines that were “plucked out of the air" wrongly suggest that we can drink almost daily with no ill-effects, say doctors".
Those guidelines were produces by a working party of the Royal College of Physicians in 1987, and have been adopted by the Government for the subsequent 25 years. Since then a couple of things have come to light.
Firstly, it's emerged that the evidence base underlying those guidelines were not really built on the strongest foundation. It's since been acknowledged that there was not any sufficient data, but the working party thought they ought to come up with something. It's been quoted as "a sort of intelligent guess made by a committee".
Secondly new research is pointing to even lower levels of alcohol consumption. In 2012, some Oxford University research for the British Heart Foundation found that tiny amounts of alcohol can increase risk of cancer. That limit is 0.5 units a day - a half a small glass of wine - less than a quarter of the current guidelines. The study showed that a woman drinking a bottle of wine a week, increases here risk of breast cancer by 10%. There's be plenty more research to come and probably of different opinions, but the direction of travel is probably clear.
Those daily limits may start to seem more like weekly limits...
Well good then that the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has suggested that existing advise on safe drinking is too confusing. Although that's a different matter - that's communication rather than the levels themselves. The committee suggested that “Alcohol guidelines are a crucial tool for the Government in its effort to combat excessive and problematic drinking. It is vital that they are up to date and that people know how to use them. While we urge the UK health departments to re-evaluate the guidelines more thoroughly, the evidence we received suggests that the guidelines should not be increased and that people should be advised to take at least two drink-free days a week.”
So some time, energy and thinking on a review which will touch on those levels as well as their communication.
So watch this space, but maybe with a cup of tea in hand rather than a large glass of red....
Source: Think You Know Your Limit? You Don't. Dr Michael Mosley. The Times. Tuesday 1st January 2013, Times 2 Feature Article p.2-3. Also included in BBC Radio 4 You and Yours, January 2,3,4 2013.
