3 reasons why you should care what “shot of alcohol” means – CISA

Do you know what the standard dose of alcohol is? A concept created to help you understand how much pure alcohol is in different types and sizes of alcoholic drinks, and it can change the way you look at your consumption.

The definition of alcohol dosage can affect the following three areas of consumption:

The way each person calculates how much they drink varies greatly, and according to a recent study, the majority of Brazilians who drink excessively believe they are moderate consumers. The definition of abusive and moderate consumption is based on a standardized definition of “dose of alcohol”, and this also helps many studies to form groups of consumers, according to the amount of doses they report consuming. Therefore, understanding the concept of a standardized dose of alcohol is essential to understanding almost everything that is said when it comes to alcohol.

Another drink?

Everyone seems to have a vision of what a dose of alcohol would be. Furthermore, these subjective definitions may vary depending on the types of beverages consumed. A person may think that 200 ml of beer and 200 ml of wine are equivalent, and both are doses, but this is wrong, as the amount of alcohol present in these two drinks is different. To determine the dosage of alcohol, it is necessary to establish a definition independent of the type of drink consumed; In other words, this definition needs standardization. To deal with precisely these difficulties the concept of the “standard dose” was created.

a Standard dose of alcohol takes into account the amount of pure alcohol (ethanol) present in each drink. Therefore, a 350ml can is equivalent to a 150ml glass of wine, which in turn is equivalent to 40ml of spirits. Note that the alcohol content of a drink is inversely proportional to the volume, i.e. the higher the alcohol content, the smaller the volume needed to make up the standard dose of alcohol.

However, the definition of a standard dose, in terms of the amount of pure alcohol, varies from country to country. Moreover, many countries, e.g BrazilYou do not have a fixed definition of the standard dose of alcohol.

How much is the dosage worldwide?

The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that the standard dose of alcohol is 10 grams of pure alcoholBut he also recognizes that this definition does not exist – by and large – in most countries, and can vary between those that stipulate a standard dose. In your online control panel Specified standard dose (Definition of standard drink), it can be noted that of the 195 signatory countries, only 48 have an official definition of the standard dose. Of these 48, only 26 have the 10-gram definition recommended by the World Health Organization. In South America, only Chile (15 g) and Paraguay (10 g) have official standard dose definitions.

Standard dosage is a concept that varies internationally because beverage and consumption habits vary greatly between countries. In general, the standard dose is designed taking into account the type of drink most commonly consumed, the common size of the bottle and the typical alcohol concentration of that drink. In the case of the USA, for example, the most consumed beverage is beer, with an alcohol content of 5%, in 355 ml bottles, which contains 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is the national standard dose. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, have chosen a smaller unit size (8 g) to accommodate smaller dose sizes without resorting to fractional units (1). The standard dosage is then communicated to the public in terms of equivalent and easy-to-understand amounts of beer, wine, spirits or other types of beverages with varying concentrations of alcohol.

In Brazil, the most consumed beverage, as in the United States, is beer; Therefore, to facilitate the accounting of alcohol drinkers, CISA adopted the North American NIAAA guidelines (National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism), which specifies The standard dose is 14 grams of pure alcoholOr 17.7 ml of pure alcohol.

The standard dose is therefore an important concept for conveying information about alcohol intake to consumers, measuring alcohol intake in research studies, and estimating and reporting the risks of alcohol consumption. In this sense, it is important for Brazil to adopt a standard dose definition and adjust its health policies and recommendations accordingly. When this is done, CISA undertakes, if necessary, to amend its own definition and recommendations. To stay up to date on these changes, stay tuned to our website and follow CISA on our social media!