Knowing when to quit is an important quality that we need to develop in order to become responsible drinkers. But the problem with this is that once we start drinking, the alcohol relaxes us and gives us a sense of euphoria which is difficult to quit. So the more we drink, the more we want and often we don’t feel inebriated until it’s too late. For this reason it’s best to count the number of standard drinks we consume, set ourselves a limit before we even start drinking and stick to it.
Calculating a standard drink is the next thing we need to learn. It’s not rocket science and rather than counting glasses or bottles counting the number of standard drinks we consume is a more reliable way of keeping track of the actual quantity of alcohol we have already downed.
Bottles, glasses and cans contain varying amounts of alcohol and so counting these can be misleading and not give us any indication of where we are in terms of the legal limits. Whereas a standard drink is a unit of measurement for measuring how much alcohol is contained in a drink, so it is a more reliable way of keeping track of the alcohol we consume.
A standard drink by Australian standard is any drink containing 10 grams of alcohol. One standard drink always contains the same amount of alcohol regardless of the container size or alcohol type consumed. The number of standard drinks in an alcohol beverage is always shown on the label of the container.
This is how you calculate it:
Volume of container in litres
X % alcohol by volume (ml/100ml)
X 0.789*
=number of standard drinks
(Multiply the volume of the container in litres by the alcohol volume and multiply that by 0.789.)
This will allow you to plan your consumption more carefully and be a responsible drinker.
