Units are how we measure the alcohol content of the drinks we consume.
Knowing your units will help you stay in control of your drinking. To reduce your risk of harming your health if you drink most weeks:
- Men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week
- Spread your drinking over three days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week
One unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol – the amount of alcohol the average adult can process within an hour. This means that if the average adult drinks a drink with one unit of alcohol in it, within an hour there should, in theory, be no alcohol left in their bloodstream, but that length of time could differ depending on a person’s body size.
