POLOKWANE – It is because serving sizes at restaurants, pubs and bars differ, an innocent ‘just one drink’, depending on who is serving it, could pack a punch bigger than you intended. This according to Amanda Swanepoel a social worker at the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA) Polokwane.
“It is often difficult to keep track of the amount of alcohol consumed, because the concentration of alcohol varies between alcoholic beverages, and because drinks are served in glasses that can hold more than one standard drink. When keeping track of alcohol consumption, it is important to consider both the serving size and concentration of alcohol. Monitoring alcohol consumption is important,” Swanepoel explained.
She offers tips on how to monitor your alcohol consumption:
• Avoid refilling a half empty glass. It is much harder to keep track of how much is being consumed if a half empty glass is refilled, compared to when the drinker waits and refills their glass only when it is empty.
• Keep track of the serving size of drinks. Convert them to standard drinks. Don’t assume that a single serving is equivalent to a standard drink.
• Read the label. Check how much alcohol the beverage contains.
• Remember that a standard drink is not always equivalent to a single serving. Normally, a standard drink is one containing the equivalent of 10 g ethanol. However, in many cases a single serving of alcohol (a glass of wine, a bottle of beer) is more than one standard drink or 10 g of ethanol.
Keep the following in mind:
100 ml wine = 9.5–13% alcohol
250 ml full strength beer = 4.9% alcohol
375 ml mid-strength beer = 3.5% alcohol
470 ml light beer = 2.7% alcohol
30 ml spirits = 37–40%.
Standard serving sizes often contain more than one standard drink. For example: at restaurants, wine is often served in 150 ml glasses which is equivalent to 1.4–1.6 standard drinks. Standard cans and bottles of beer contain 375 ml alcohol which is equivalent to 1.4 standard drinks and cans of pre-mixed spirits are equivalent to 2.1 standard drinks.
“Please drink responsibly and when you are not in a state to drive, have someone sober drive you home,” Swanepoel advised.
riana@nmroup.co.za
