It is
important we control the amount of alcohol we take in regularly, but how many
of us really know what a unit of alcohol is?
The idea of counting alcohol units
was first introduced in the UK in 1987 to help people keep track of their
drinking.
Nigeria is one of the largest alcohol markets in the world, and most Nigerians drink well above the recommended level of alcohol.
Units are a simple way of expressing
the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink. One unit equals 10ml or 8g of pure
alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can
process in an hour. This means that within an hour there should be, in theory,
little or no alcohol left in the blood of an adult, although this will vary
from person to person.
Men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week, no more than 4 units in any given day, and have at least 2 alcohol-free days a week. Women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, no more than 3 units in any given day, and have at least 2 alcohol-free days a week.
Knowing your units will help you
stay in control of your drinking. To reduce your risk of harming
your health if you drink most weeks:
- men and women are advised not to regularly drink
more than 14 units a week
- spread your drinking over three days or more if you
drink as much as 14 units a week
POWERFUL GUIDE TO ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
Using units is a simpler way of
representing a drink's alcohol content – usually expressed by the standard
measure ABV, which stands for alcohol by volume.
ABV is a measure of the amount of
pure alcohol as a percentage of the total volume of liquid in a drink.
You can find the ABV on the labels
of cans and bottles, sometimes written as "vol" or "alcohol
volume" or you can ask bar staff about particular drinks.
You can work out how many units
there are in any drink by multiplying the total volume of a drink (in ml) by
its ABV (which is measured as a percentage) and dividing the result by 1,000.
- Strength (ABV) x volume (ml) ÷ 1,000 = units.
Common beers in Nigeria and their
ABV
· Heineken lager beer - 5.4%
· Gulder lager – 5.2%
· Star lager – 5.1%
· Legend extra stout – 7.5%
· 33 export lager – 5%
· Star lite lager - <4%
(starlite website)
· Guinness foreign extra stout
– 7.5%
· Guinness extra smooth –
5.5%
· Smirnoff ice – 5.5%
· Harp lager – 5.1%
· Hero lager – 5.2%
The volume of an average beer bottle
is about 600mls.
Legend extra stout = 7.5 x 600/1000 =
4.5 units
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