So you’ve decided you’ll drink just once a week, and you go mad on that Saturday night. But then, on Sunday everyone suggests a pub lunch with a pint… that’s just hair of the dog though (doesn’t count).
Then Monday rolls round and you start the week optimistic, no alcohol for you. But then it’s Tuesday and there are four days before Saturday, so someone at work suggests a trip to Wetherspoons, you decide you’ll go ‘just for one’.
It’s Wednesday and you’re definitely not drinking, you’re going home to cook, but the stew would really be enhanced by some red wine… may as well buy a bottle.
Then it’s thirsty Thursday (totally legit), and then on Friday your mates persuade you ‘you’re not working tomorrow’ (as good an excuse as any) and then you’ve finally scraped it to Saturday.
Sound familiar?
We spend so long justifying it, that we forget how much we’re actually drinking. But Public Health England is here to remind us of the serious health risks.
Regularly drinking more than 14 units a week (six pints or ten small glasses of vino) significantly increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, brain damage, and stroke.
There is an online calculator that can help assess your risk by inputting your weekly booze intake, sex, and age.
As well as categorising whether you’re a low, medium, or high risk drinker, it calculates how many calories you drink and tells you the chocolate bar equivalent.
Just five pints a week adds up to an extra 40,000 calories over the course of a year, the Sun reports.
Of course booze is also a massive drain on your wallet, so the calculator also gives you the brutal number that you’re spending.
Earlier this year, the recommended weekly alcohol limit was lowered to just 14 units (six pints) per week.
I hate to say it, but all this reading is making me thirsty want to quit drinking.
