Binge Drinking: How Type Of Wine Glass Influences How Much Alcohol You Pour
Binge Drinking Is Not (Really) Your Fault
The Huffington Post UK
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If your weekend was blighted by hangovers and morning-after-the-night-before regret (dancing on the table using your iPhone as a microphone was indeed a low point) you'll be pleased to learn that binge drinking is not your fault. Well, not entirely...
According to a recent study, many people have trouble assessing alcohol volumes especially in a social setting. A range of environmental factors - including the shape, size and colour of a wine glass - may affect how much alcohol you pour (or keep on pouring).
In the study, published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse, participants were asked to pour what they considered a normal drink using different types of glasses in various settings.
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The results show how easy it is to overdo it, with participants pouring around 12% more wine into a wide glass than a standard one. The same was true when holding a glass while pouring compared to placing the glass on a table.
"People have trouble assessing volumes," said Laura Smarandescu, co-author and assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State. "They tend to focus more on the vertical than the horizontal measures. That's why people tend to drink less when they drink from a narrow glass, because they think they're drinking more."
Researchers tested six environmental cues to understand how each influenced the amount poured. The contrast between the glass and color of the wine also made a significant difference. For example, when pouring white wine into a clear glass, participants poured 9% more than pouring red, which had a greater contrast to the glass. The influence of a small and large table setting was not as strong.
Wine is different from alcoholic drinks that are served in a bottle or measured with a shot glass, making it easy for individuals to over pour. A standard serving of wine is 5-ounces, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. But Douglas Walker, an assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State and co-author, said it's easy to lose track of how many drinks you've had, if you are pouring more than you realise.
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10 Hangover Remedies: What Works?
Hair Of The Dog(01 of10)
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Even though the thought of a bloody mary may appeal to you, a virgin mary is a much better choice the morning after. "The worst thing to do is to have another drink," says Charles Cutler, M.D., an internist in Norristown, Pa., and the chair of the American College of Physician's board of governors. The alcohol may temporarily take the edge off your symptoms but could hurt in the long run. Hangovers make you feel horrible because alcohol is toxic, Dr. Cutler explains, and you need to give your body a chance to recover. That morning drink could lead to an even worse hangover the following day.More From Health.com:Being Choosy About Booze Helps Avoid Hangover (To A Point)The Health Hangover Handbook: How to Survive the Morning After7 Tips for the Best Sleep Ever (credit:Gettystock)
Greasy Breakfast(02 of10)
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There's no scientific evidence that a heaping helping of bacon and eggs will ease hangover anguish, although many people swear by it. "Greasy food is just going to give you heartburn," says Dr. Cutler, who recommends sticking with easy-to-digest foods such as toast or cereal. "You want to get calories right back into your system." Eat light and stay hydrated, agrees John Brick, Ph.D., an alcohol research scientist and author of "The Doctor's Hangover Handbook". "No specific foods are recommended, although honey sandwiches are helpful to some people," Brick says. "[They're] easy to eat and digest." (credit:Gettystock)
Alka-Seltzer(03 of10)
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Alka-Seltzer turns 80 in 2011, and the famous fizzy medicine has probably been used to treat hangovers for nearly that long. In 2001, the company even introduced a Morning Relief formulation specifically for hangovers. All Alka-Seltzer varieties contain sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda), which will help settle a queasy belly by neutralizing stomach acid. But other ingredients, notably aspirin and citric acid, may irritate your stomach after a night of heavy drinking. (credit:Gettystock)
Aspirin Or Ibuprofen(04 of10)
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Over-the-counter painkillers can certainly help ease hangover headaches and the aches and pains you may feel elsewhere in your body after a night of heavy drinking. But choose carefully. If you're a regular heavy drinker, you may have done some damage to the lining of your stomach, and taking aspirin or ibuprofen (such as Advil) can worsen this damage and even cause bleeding, Dr. Cutler warns. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is also risky for habitual drinkers, due to the potential for liver damage. Check with your doctor about a painkiller that's right for you. (credit:Gettystock)
Hangover Pills(05 of10)
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There are lots of products out there that claim to prevent or cure hangovers --such as Chaser, PreToxx, and RU 21 -- but there is very little scientific evidence that they will make you feel any better. "Hangover pills that have been studied are not effective, or only help against a few complaints…but not all," says Joris C. Verster, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychopharmacology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who studies hangovers. A 2005 review article in the journal BMJ identified eight peer-reviewed, placebo-controlled studies of hangover remedies, and concluded that "no compelling evidence exists" to support their use."What's in them either doesn't work, or if it has any benefit, you could buy it generically for probably a third of the price," says Dr. Cutler. He suggests taking a multivitamin instead to restore the nutrients your body may have lost during a binge. (credit:Gettystock)
Coffee(06 of10)
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If you're a regular coffee drinker, skipping the java when you're hung over may -- or may not be -- a good idea, Brick says. You may wind up layering a pounding caffeine-withdrawal headache on top of your hangover woes if you miss your morning fix. That said, caffeine narrows your blood vessels and boosts blood pressure. "Both of these may make the hangover worse," Brick says. "If you drink coffee regularly, you might try a very small amount in the morning. Wait 30 to 60 minutes and see how you feel." (credit:Gettystock)
Water And Sports Drinks(07 of10)
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Conventional wisdom holds that the dehydration caused by heavy drinking is what makes you feel so bad the next day. In fact, experts actually know very little about what causes a hangover. Potential culprits include disrupted biological rhythms or even alcohol withdrawal, and research suggests that congeners -- toxic substances found in alcohol, especially dark liquors such as whiskey -- may also play a role. Nevertheless, replacing the fluid you've lost will likely help you feel a little less miserable. "Juice, water, Gatorade, all those things -- they're going to make you feel better," says Dr. Cutler. (credit:Gettystock)
Exercise(08 of10)
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A gentle workout might help you feel better, if you can manage it. (That's a big if.) "Remember: If you've been drinking heavily, you could be a little dehydrated, you could be metabolically behind on your nutrition, and exercise is going to require hydration and nutrition," Dr. Cutler says. "Exercise is always the right thing to do, but I don't think [on] the morning you wake up with a hangover, exercise is what you need." What you really need is rest, he adds. (credit:Alamy )
Sauna(09 of10)
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Think you can "sweat out" the alcohol and other toxins you may have consumed during a night of partying? Think again. A sauna can cause potentially dangerous blood vessel and blood flow changes in your body. "The last thing you need is to disrupt the normal blood flow patterns by extreme heat," Dr. Cutler says. If you're already somewhat dehydrated, excessive sweating can be harmful, and even deadly. Researchers from the Finnish State Alcohol Company's Research Laboratories in Helsinki warn that sauna bathing while hung over carries "real health risks," including dangerous drops in blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms. (credit:Gettystock)
Sleep(10 of10)
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People sleep poorly after a night of drinking. Alcohol will put you to sleep quickly, but when it begins to wear off several hours later, the withdrawal your body feels can disrupt sleep and jolt you awake. While sleep deprivation won't by itself cause a hangover, it can definitely make the symptoms worse. If you have the luxury of "sleeping it off" the next day, do so. Your foggy brain and achy body will thank you. "The body's got an amazing capacity to heal on its own," says Dr. Cutler. In the end, the only surefire treatment for a hangover is time.More From Health.com:Being Choosy About Booze Helps Avoid Hangover (To A Point)The Health Hangover Handbook: How to Survive the Morning After7 Tips for the Best Sleep Ever (credit:Gettystock)
"If you ask someone how much they drink and they report it in a number of servings, for a self-pour that's just not telling the whole story. One person's two is totally different than another person's two," Walker said. "Participants in the study were asked to pour the same amount at each setting, but they just couldn't tell the difference."
Learning to control serving size
Efforts to lower obesity rates have generated greater awareness about portion control when it comes to food. The creation of 100-calorie packs and visual aids, like a deck of cards to measure 3-ounces of meat, make it easier to limit a serving size. Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell and co-author, said it is just as easy to help people drink less.
"If you want to pour and drink less wine, stick to the white wine glasses and only pour if your glass is on the table or counter and not in your hand – in either case you'll pour about 9-12 percent less," Wansink said.
Unlike eating too much, there are more immediate and serious consequences associated with drinking too much. Smarandescu said people will often rely on internal cues, such as a full feeling, when eating, but that doesn't work with drinking. The study demonstrates the need to educate people about how to measure a proper serving size of alcohol, she said.
"I think this helps us understand drinking behaviors to see how these cues influence individual pours. When you add this information about how people pour, to survey data of how much people drink, then you have a more complete picture about how people drink," Smarandescu said.
Raising a glass to awareness
Eliminating all bias to guarantee a perfect serving size is not practical, but making wine drinkers aware of environmental factors can limit the extent to which they over pour. To better understand this impact, researchers asked participants to identify which factors may have caused them to pour too much. The factors that ranked highest, such as the wide glass, were those with the greatest influence on pouring.
"The fact they were able to know retrospectively, but they still poured different amounts, told us they didn't think about it when pouring otherwise they would have adjusted. So they had to be prompted to think about how much they poured," Walker said.
Researchers add that even though participants could identify those environmental factors, it does not suggest they knew how much more they were pouring to accurately track their alcohol intake.