One drink for the road…one drink too many?

It must be said that the holiday season is not conducive to temperance. On the other hand, a well-informed person has the leisure to decide how many drinks they will allow themselves in the evening; especially if they have to drive after a heavy meal.

Depuis l’Antiquité, la consommation d’alcool est associée aux rencontres conviviales ou festives, aux rites et cérémonies de toutes sortes. Encore aujourd’hui, les occasions – et Christmas en est une – pour boire en compagnie sont toujours aussi populaires.

Key facts:

• A 341 ml glass of beer contains as much alcohol as a 142 ml glass of wine or a 43 ml shot of spirits.

• In a heavier person, the blood alcohol level will be lower than in a lighter person. However, obese people are not immune to poisoning because, although they have a higher percentage of fat, their water volume is reduced to dilute the alcohol.

• Un homme qui consomme la même quantité d’alcool qu’une femme présentera une concentration d’alcool dans son sang moins élevée que cette dernière. En effet, le corps féminin contient généralement un peu plus de graisse et moins d’eau que le corps masculin. Comme on peut le constater, nous ne sommes pas tous égaux devant l’alcool!

• When you drink alcohol without eating, it passes directly into your bloodstream and its effects become almost immediate. Just as consuming a lot of alcohol in a short period of time causes a sudden rise in blood alcohol levels.

• Only time can lower blood alcohol levels. It takes about an hour per drink to achieve this result.

Remember that it is illegal to drive if you have a blood alcohol level equal to or greater than 0.5 grams per liter of blood, or 0.25 mg of alcohol per liter of exhaled air. A small device for calculating the level of alcohol present in the blood (the breathalyzer) is now commercially available.