- In the UK, at the end of an advert
for some kind of alcoholic beverage,
it will always say, " For the facts,
"go to DrinkAware@co.uk."
But no one ever goes to DrinkAware.co.uk, until now.
I have taken it upon myself
to get the facts at DrinkAware.co.uk.
This is not sponsored by DrinkAware.co.uk.
And so, like promised in my video
about my experiences with alcohol,
here is a video about drinking responsibly
according to what the UK government advises.
Before we begin, we need to understand units
because the guidelines aren't based per drink,
they're based per unit.
And one unit does not equal one drink.
It's very specific.
I have no idea how they work it out.
So this is what one unit looks like,
250 mls of 4% beer,
76 mls of 13% wine,
218 mls of 4.5% cider,
25 mls of 40% spirit,
and 250 mls of 4% alchopop.
OK, now we understand units.
(humming happily)
How many units can I have per day
slash per week?
The recommended limit is 14 units per week
for men and women.
You're not supposed to have the 14 units all at once.
You need to spread out your drinking.
And, it goes without saying,
but eat food, drink water,
and also have drink free days.
OK, so what does 14 units look like?
14 units is six pints of 4% beer.
14 units is six glasses of 13% wine.
14 units is 14 shots of 40% spirit.
So technically having two shots of vodka a day
is adhering to the UK guidelines.
So, there you go, there's your facts.
Now you don't have to go to the website
'cause I did it for you.
You're welcome.
Also, I just wanted to talk about binge drinking
for a moment.
Obviously, the sensible advice would be just don't do it,
but the reality is that some of us will binge drink
every now and then.
So let's talk about ways to binge drink safely.
First of all, eat something.
Line your stomach.
This goes for anytime you're going out,
whether you're planning on drinking a little or a lot.
I hear so many people say things like,
"Oh, if you don't eat anything,
"then you get drunk quicker and cheaper."
And no, like don't do that.
Also, drink water.
A good practice to get into
is alternating alcoholic drinks with tap water.
I'll have a pint, and then I'll have some water,
and then I'll have a pint,
and then I'll have some water.
Usually you forget to do that,
and instead when you get home
you just down buckets of water
before going to sleep.
Drink slowly and over a long period of time.
This advice really works for all that day drinking
that we do in summer.
Start drinking at noon,
have some casual afternoon drinks,
turns into dinner and then evening drinks,
and then maybe you go out.
And before you know it,
you've been drinking solidly for 12 hours,
but you don't feel that drunk
because it's been paced out,
and you've drunk a lot of water,
and you've had some food.
All good.
Not sure the government would advise that,
but they did say drink slow
and over a long period of time, so.
You know, that's just how I'm interpreting it.
This last tip is one that I always do,
which is at a certain point, just stop ordering alcohol
and start drinking water.
So if I'm going out to a club, maybe around one am
I'll just stop drinking booze,
and then I'll just start ordering water.
There's always that tendency of when you hit your peak,
and then you go one drink over,
and then it's just down.
So I just stop before I get there,
and then just drink water for the rest of the night.
It keeps my energy up, and it sobers me up a bit,
so getting home is a lot easier and safer.
And less of a hangover in the morning.
Also cheaper.
Driving.
This has never been an issue for me
because I've always lived in cities with public transport,
and none of my friends drive.
But in places like the US where a lot of people drive
from a really young age,
I can imagine that drink driving
is a bit of an issue.
There's no unit limit for when you can and can't drive
because it's based on your height, and weight, and your age,
and a whole bunch of other things.
So my advice would just be don't.
If you know you're going to be driving,
just don't drink.
Just save yourself the hassle of measuring
what you can and can't have.
Just, just don't.
Other general advice would be to have a buddy,
look out for your friends
and make sure they're looking out for you.
If you are going to vomit,
there are a few different types of vomiting from alcohol.
I'm gonna talk about three of them.
The first one, dead to the world.
This means you went too far,
you're being sick, and you're done.
You're done for the night.
You're just going to carry on vomiting
until it's all gone,
drink some water, brush your teeth,
and then go to bed.
That's what you're going to do.
The second is the tactical chunder.
I have never done this.
I don't think I'm capable of doing it,
but quite a lot of my friends at university,
when they knew that they'd drunk too much,
would just like sneak off, go vomit,
and then just come back, and then be fine.
I don't get it.
And the third one is the morning after vom,
which I think is the worst one
because then you're like sober and vomiting,
whereas if you did it the night before,
you'd be drunk and vomiting,
and not like fully conscious of what's going on,
but being sober and vomiting
is just the worst 'cause you're just fully present,
and you know exactly what's happening,
and you're feeling all of it, ew.
So, yep, vomiting, that happens.
Try and avoid it by eating food and drinking water,
and not drinking so much.
Oh another thing, be careful of alcoholic drinks
that don't taste like alcohol.
That's where they get you.
Those really sweet, colorful,
nice tasting cocktails,
and you're like, "Oh, there must be no booze in this.
"I can't taste any of the booze."
And then whoops.
So you know how I said that the UK advises
you have a maximum of 14 units of alcohol per week.
Well, it's obviously different in different countries.
And I found this article on The Guardian
that has the numbers.
So here's the recommended weekly unit intake
for Spain, the US, Ireland, Czech Republic,
Denmark, New Zealand, Australia,
Japan, and the UK.
It's pretty interesting that there's no global
consensus on this,
so it is kind of a cultural thing.
Some nights when I go out I'm feeling British,
and some nights when I go I'm feeling Spanish.
Of course alcohol is still a drug,
and you can get addicted.
If you're having any troubles with alcohol addiction,
I'll leave some links in the description
with more information on support.
All right, thanks for watching.
Please give the video a thumbs up
if you enjoyed it,
especially for that stop motion, eh.
(chuckles)
Um, I tried.
Let me know in the comments what you think
about the units thing.
Because it's different in every country,
do you think that we should take it seriously or no?
I hope you're having a great day.
Don't forget to subscribe
'cause I make new videos every week.
Bye!
(upbeat music)