Men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week (and no more than four units in any one day).
One unit of alcohol is 10 ml (1 cl) by volume, or 8 g by weight, of pure alcohol. For example:

  • One unit of alcohol is about equal to:
  • Half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager, or cider (3–4% alcohol by volume), or
  • A small pub measure (25 ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume), or
  • A standard pub measure (50 ml) of fortified wine such as sherry or port (20% alcohol by volume).
I only drink spirits or rather did drink only spirits while I was in Sri Lanka, with measures generally measured off the bottle by hand. I’m assuming we generally pour 50 ml shots. Now I generally have around 8-10 drinks a night. I went out about 6 nights a week in December and January and around 3 nights a week after that. That works out to:
December/January – 8 x 50 x 6 = 2400ml of alcohol a week
                                  In units: 2400/25 = 100 units
February – 8 x 50 x 3 = 1200ml of alcohol
                   In units = 1200/25 = 50 units
So since December 2005 I have been drinking around 2 to 5 times the recommended weekly intake of alcohol, and around 3 times the recommended daily amount. Bloody hell just looking at the figures makes me glad I made a decision about a lifestyle change! No more binge drinking, I’m almost 25 and I guess its time I stopped acting like a college kid. Well cheers to a lifestyle change (as I sip a old reserve/coke that I smuggled back to the States with me)!