Sensible Drinking

Under normal circumstances, drinking within the recommended limits will not harm your health. however, when occasional or social drinking leads to heavier drinking this can cause social, psychological and health problems.

Drinking responsibly is about how much you drink and the way you drink alcohol. The advice is that you should….

	Eat a full meal before drinking.
	Keep your drink in sight at all times.
	Avoid mixing drinks, drinking doubles or playing drinking games.
	Pace your drinking - no more than one per hour.
	Switch to lower strength alcoholic drinks.
	Stick to the recommended daily limits (3 units for women, 4 for men).
	Basic unit guide: 25ml shot of spirit = 1 unit 175 ml Wine (12% alcohol content) = 2.1 units 1 pint of 5% strength beer, lager or cider = 2.8 units
	Do not binge drink –recommended daily units should not be “saved” for the weekend.
	Alternate with non-alcoholic drinks throughout the evening.
	Do not drive or operate machinery after drinking.

Find out more at http://www.units.nhs.uk/howMany.html

A profile of alcohol and health in Wales has been produced by the Wales Centre for Health with the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS).