Preferences

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

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

> 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.

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.
As a reference for folks, 14g of a liquid that pours like water is one tablespoon.
Who on earth knows what 14g of alcohol is in terms of visiting a bar?
Beer is about 5%, so 14 times 20 = 280ml of beer, pretty standard beer glass size
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.
> 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.

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.
In Britain the standard glass size is 568 ml, i.e. a pint.
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.

You can buy beer in halfs, but people more usually buy a pint.
That's about two drinks, then.
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

If it’s prepackaged (not from a tap), it’ll say on the packaging how many standard drinks it is.
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.

> 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-...

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.

This item has no comments currently.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Story Lists

j
Next story
k
Previous story
Shift+j
Last story
Shift+k
First story
o Enter
Go to story URL
c
Go to comments
u
Go to author

Navigation

Shift+t
Go to top stories
Shift+n
Go to new stories
Shift+b
Go to best stories
Shift+a
Go to Ask HN
Shift+s
Go to Show HN

Miscellaneous

?
Show this modal