What is a standard drink?
A standard drink contains 10 grams of alcohol but different drink serving sizes are often more than one standard drink.
In Australia we don’t use standard glass sizes, therefore a glass of wine for example, may be served in three different size glasses making it difficult to determine the number of standard drinks you’ve had.
Refer the below tables which are a guide to the number of standard drinks in common servings of beer, wine and spirits.*
Tips to staying under .05
- start your night out with a soft drink or water
- drink light alcoholic drinks instead of full strength
- only have one type of drink, don’t mix your drinks
- alternate between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks
- avoid drinking in ‘rounds’
- don’t let people top up your glass, it’s hard to keep track of how many drinks you’ve had.
- drink to your own pace and your own tastes. Don’t let your friends determine what and how much you should be drinking
* Australian Guidelines to Reduce Heath Risks from Drinking Alcohol, Australian Government, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Commonwealth of Australia, February 2009.
Copyright Commonwealth of Australia reproduced by permission