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Comment by Lukman | Hacker News Reader

Oh, sorry, just saw explanation below. In the US these studies equate 1 unit = 1 glass of wine or 1 beer, I could swear.

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That's what a lot of sources in the US say, but, when they say, "drink", they mean "standard drink", which is this quasi-mythological beverage that one never encounters in real life.

I honestly think that it's negligent on the part of public health folks to continue the practice. Saying "Drinking more than 2 drinks in X time will cause you to be legally impaired" is actively encouraging people to unwittingly drive drunk in a culture when a typical ABV for beer is about twice what it was when those standard were originally calculated, and non-highball cocktails typically contain at least two shots of liquor.

"Unit" is so much better a term.

> when they say, "drink", they mean "standard drink", which is this quasi-mythological beverage that one never encounters in real life.

I encounter 12oz bottles and cans of 5% abv beer literally every day

A 12 oz is .34 L, which at 5% would be 1.7 units of alcohol — rather different than a single unit.

In the US, "units of alcohol" are not a thing or part of the government recommendations.

One standard drink in the US is tied to 12oz of 5% beer (or it's equivalents in wine/spirits), not the UK definition of a "unit" of alcohol.

When there are US health recommendations made, they are referring to standard drinks.

Haha, well in Bavaria what we think of as "a beer" is 500ml of beer at 4%, which is 20ml of pure alcohol, which is "2 units" in the UK.

If we're talking about UK, a pint of a stout is 568 ml at 5%+, which is 3 units.

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