How mortal are you going to get tonight?

[Bagpuss]

BB gets reported on the adult news too

[cailin maith]

I may have a drink tonight, I may not. Depends on how I feel.
I try and be careful around booze - I have two brothers who are both recovering alcoholics (3 years without a drink, thanks to AA ) so if I think I've been drinking too much, I stop.
They couldn't stop at one, I can.

Thats the crux of the matter isn't it - I'm with you Pogle, I've seen the damage but it doesn't stop me getting arseholed every now and again - an alcoholic can't stop at one nor can they stop the thoughts of the next drink consuming them as they go through the day.

Edit - For the record - the thoughts of the next drink bit - I don't mean like SA - she's just excited by the thoughts of her night out!!

[Bagpuss]

Bad Plan B ideas:

1/ Running a Gastro pub with Sally Anne

[snaw]

Bad Plan B ideas:

1/ Running a Gastro pub with Sally Anne

That'd be like running an illegal drug gang with Pete Docherty ...

[DaveB]

Wine with food is OK though because your body metabolises it differently and you absorb less alcohol. That's why the French have less incidence of drinking realted illness.

Not strictly true.

Eating before you drink holds the alchohol in the stomach for longer, where it is absorbed more slowly. Normally 20-30% is absorbed in the stomach and 70-80% in the small intestine.

Eating first means more is ablsorbed in the stomach over a longer period of time. This means that although your blood alchohol content will stay lower, you won't be as pissed, it continues to be released over a longer period, so you won't get pissed as fast, but you will stay pissed for longer over all.

Peak blood alchohol when you havn't eaten can occour in less than an hour. If you have eaten a large meal it may not peak untill 6 hours later.

Over all you still consume the same amount of alchohol, it just gets into your system at different rates.

The French have a lower incidence of Acute alchohol related ilnesses but their long term rates are about the same as the rest of us.

[cailin maith]

That'd be like running an illegal drug gang with Pete Docherty ...

I dunno - I can see a plan B happening - what do you think SA?

[SallyAnne]

Bad Plan B ideas:

1/ Running a Gastro pub with Sally Anne

Or running a narcoleptic clinic with Bagpuss.

[SallyAnne]

I dunno - I can see a plan B happening - what do you think SA?

A mixture of that and the gastro pub is pretty much what I'd do if I won the lottery

[cailin maith]

A mixture of that and the gastro pub is pretty much what I'd do if I won the lottery

Better remember to put a quid on tonight!!

[sweetandsour]

I couldn't tell you - I dont really know how to work it out

You take the alcoholic percentage of the drink and multiply it by the proportion of a litre that you consume.

So a bottle of South African Red at 14% would be 14 * 750 / 1000 = 10.5 units.

The old figures of half a pint of beer is equal to one unit was based on the old fashioned pints of mild that noone drinks any more that were about 3.5% alcohol: 3.5 * 285 /1000 = 1.

If you drink Stella you are consuming more alcohol than that.

The Government’s recommended daily unit guidelines are up to 2-3 units for a woman and up to 3-4 units for a man. One unit is equivalent to 8g of alcohol. That’s about what you get in half a pint of a weak (4%) lager.

A whole pint of strong lager (5%) or cider contains three units. Two small (125ml) glasses of wine (12%) are another three units. Binge drinking as been defined as drinking double the daily recommended unit guidelines.

The trouble with "rules" is that intelligent people will question their origin.

I have read on a couple of occasions (but I can't remember where so I can't provide any evidence) that the 28 units per week limit for men arose because the BMA were put on the spot and were asked what the limit should be. They didn't have an answer so produced a number out of thin air.

As far as I am aware, the only study that I have read about was one that says if you drink 50 units per week you have a problem.