How much alcohol can we drink?

Here in the UK, men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units of alcohol in a week, but Andrew is aware of how confusing that advice can be.

“No one really knows what a unit is,” he says. “Roughly speaking, there’s two and a half units in a pint of beer or cider, and about 10 units in a bottle of wine. So the guidelines are to drink no more than a bottle and a half of wine a week, but that’s not absolute. We wouldn’t say, ‘if you drink 14 units you’ll be fine, if you drink 15 units you’ll be ill’.

“Obviously as grown-ups we can all decide how much we want to drink, and when,” he continues. “But it’s always good to ask yourself whether you’ve gotten into any bad habits that you want to get rid of, and whether alcohol is getting in the way of anything else in our lives or spoiling some of our friendships or activities that we’re doing. It’s OK to stop drinking if you feel like you’ve had enough, even if your mates want to carry on.”

Why does drinking alcohol in the day seem to affect us more?