Three to four units of alcohol per day for men, two or three for women. These are the recommendations of the health authorities in the United Kingdom vis-à-vis thealcohol.
If they seem reasonable, these recommendations are far from the reality of British alcohol consumption. So far that they are largely ignored by the population, according to a new scientific study published in the journal Addiction.
In the UK, the trend is towards heavy daily consumption of alcohol, whether in the pub, at home, during the week or on weekends. And where the authorities talk about units of alcohol, most Britons instead rely on glasses, bottles or pints. So difficult to navigate.
Researchers from the Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies studied a panel of 66 people aged 19 to 65, representative of the population of the United Kingdom. They tried to measure their perception of the health recommendations of the authorities.
First observation: the aspect of the pleasure of consuming alcohol is not taken into account at all by the authorities, which the respondents regret. They better perceive the recommendations of the Australian and Canadian governments, which incorporate different recommendations between the holiday season and everyday life. Second observation: if the participants claim that they sometimes limit their alcohol consumption, it is above all to face up to their professional responsibilities, and not because they care about their health.
“These results not only help to explain why some drinkers do not follow current recommendations, but also to show that people make decisions about their consumption by considering their responsibilities and their lifestyle rather than their health only”, comments Melanie Lovatt. , co-author of the study cited by Relaxnews. It remains to be seen whether the British government will take this study into account when reviewing its recommendations.
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