Healthy_Food_Guide_UK_-_January_2020

84 HEALTHY FOOD GUIDE JANUARY 2020

has nine units of alcohol. If you started drinking it at

9pm and finished at 12am, this should in theory be

cleared from your body by 6am. If you drank it while

eating food, however, this time period is likely to

be longer because food delays the absorption of

alcohol into your bloodstream. In other words, it may

not be cleared until 7am or 8am.

You also need to think about whether the alcohol

affected your sleep and how tired you feel the next

day. Even if you’re technically below the legal limit

of alcohol in your blood to drive, you may not be

reacting as quickly as usual and be ‘safe’ from a

general point of view.

Q

Is having one alcoholic

drink a day better than saving

your units for the weekend?

Neither is recommended. The UK Department of

Health (DoH) advises spreading your total units

(which shouldn’t regularly exceed 14 units a week

for women or men) evenly over three or more days

• but it also recommends having several alcohol-free
  days a week.
  This way of drinking is safer than binge drinking,
  which can increase the risk of accidents, losing
  self-control and misjudgement. It’s worth bearing in
  mind that the DoH also points out that the risk of
  developing a range of illnesses, including cancers of
  the mouth, throat and breast, increases the more you
  drink on a regular basis, so it’s important not to
  exceed the maximum of 14 units a week.

Q

Are some nationalities affected

more by alcohol than others?

Between 60% and 80% of people of East Asian

descent have a mutation in their alcohol

metabolising enzymes that mean they quickly

convert alcohol to the toxic compound acetaldehyde,

which causes nausea and flushing (see Why can

3%ABV

LAGER,BEER,

CIDER

330mlbottle

4% ABV

ALCOPOP

265ml

5% ABV

LAGER, BEER,

CIDER

200ml

7% ABV

LAGER, BEER,

CIDER

150ml

8% ABV

WINE

125ml

as a supplement and in red wine), relatively little is

known about its benefits in humans. This may, in

part, be because resveratrol is broken down rapidly

by our bodies, so consuming it is unlikely to raise our

levels very much.

Q

Having a G&T on a plane calms me,

but I feel dreadful after landing. Does

alcohol affect you more in the air?

If you drink one unit of alcohol in a G&T, the amount

of alcohol in your blood will be the same at altitude

as it would be if you’d drunk it in your local pub.

However, during a flight the cabin air pressure is

around the same as on top of a 2,200-metre high

mountain, and this can cause light-headedness. It’s

perfectly normal, but it may exaggerate the effects of

alcohol. Long-haul travel also alters the fine-tuning

of your body clock, which can leave you feeling

groggy, and alcohol is likely to amplify these effects.

In addition, it’s easy to become dehydrated

if you don’t drink plenty of fluids, andthiscanmake

you feel headachy and stressed.

All in all, it’s better to find

another way of calming yourself

when flying, such as using a

meditation app or herbal remedy.

Q

When you’ve had a lot to

drink the night before,

is it safe to drive the next morning?

It all depends on how much you drank, when you

started and stopped drinking, and what time you

intend to drive the following day. On average, it

takes an hour to metabolise one unit of alcohol.

However, this figure varies depending on your

weight, whether you’ve eaten or not and any

medication you may be taking.

Let’s say you drank a whole 750ml bottle of 12%

ABV wine (not something we’d recommend!), which

To stay within your

14 units max per

week, it pays to

see what a unit

looks like in reality

HOW DOES

ONE UNIT

MEASURE

UP?

^Even if you’re technically

below the legal limit of

alcohol in your blood to

drive, you may not be

reacting as quickly as usual_