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Learn how many standard drinks are contained in common glasses.
In Australia, a standard drink is any drink containing 10 grams of alcohol.
If you want to know how many standard drinks you’re drinking, check the label. By law, it must show the approximate number of standard drinks contained.
But in real life, knowing exactly what constitutes a ‘standard’ drink is difficult.
Different types of alcoholic beverages contain different amounts of alcohol. A glass of alcohol may contain more than one standard drink, depending on the size of the glass and the type of alcohol.
It is important to understand what a standard drink is so that when you are drinking you can manage how much alcohol you consume.
When it comes to cancer risk, there is no safe level of drinking. Reduce your drinking to reduce your risk.
If you do drink, keeping track of standard drinks can help you stick to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines:
Drink no more than 10 standard drinks in a week to reduce your risk of cancer and other serious diseases. Drink no more than four standard drinks on any one day to reduce your risk of injury.
Use this tool to see if you can correctly pour a standard drink.
1 National Health and Medical Research Council. (2020). Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol: Commonwealth of Australia. Available at https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/alcohol
See what your current drinking levels mean for your total consumption, hip pocket and kilojoule intake.
In four quick steps, find out if your current drinking levels are impacting your health and hip pocket. You will then be able to set new goals to help reduce your drinking, you will also see the money and kilojoules you'll save!
When it comes to cancer, there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. You can reduce your risk of cancer by reducing how much you drink.
Good work! You are drinking within the recommended guideline of no more than 2 standard drinks on any day to reduce the lifetime level risk* of alcohol-caused death.^
Remember any reduction in alcohol consumption benefits for your health and your back pocket!
Based on your current consumption levels, compared to others of the same gender who drank at the recommended guidelines of 2 standard drinks on any day, your lifetime level of risk* of alcohol-caused death^ is
times greater.
Annually your drinking is equal to:
When it comes to cancer, there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. You can reduce your risk of cancer by reducing how much you drink. Here's your chance to set some goals – recalculate now to see how small changes can reduce your risk and save you money and kilojoules.
Alcohol and cancer
Any level of drinking increases cancer risk. We know that alcohol increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer including:
Drinking alcohol may also increase the risk of stomach cancer.
More information on alcohol and cancer.
Alcohol and kJs
Alcoholic drinks contain a lot of kilojoules (also known as calories) and have no nutritional benefits.
It's the alcohol itself that contains most of the kilojoules, not the sugar or other carbs.
The average Australian has 2.7 standard drinks per day. That's about 2 cans of beer or 2 glasses of wine each day. Over a year, that can add up to a lot of extra kilojoules. A couple of wines a night, over the year, adds up to 335,800kJ. That's enough to feed an adult for a whole month (or the potential for 9kg of weight gain).
Great job on deciding to reduce your drinking to reduce your risk. Based on your new consumption levels, you are drinking within the recommended guideline of no more than 2 standard drinks on any day to reduce your risk* of alcohol-caused disease. However, remember when it comes to cancer there is no safe level. The best way to reduce your cancer risk is not to drink.
Based on your new consumption levels, compared to others of the same gender who drank at the recommended guidelines of 2 standard drinks on any day, your lifetime lefel of risk* of alcohol-caused death^ is now
times greater
Based on your current level of consumption you are drinking within the national alcohol guidelines.
Based on your current consumption levels your lifetime level of risk* of alcohol-caused death^ is times greater.
If you stuck to your drinking goals for 12 months you would be:
Based on your new consumption levels, you are drinking within the recommended guideline of no more than 2 standard drinks on any day to reduce the lifetime level risk* of alcohol-caused death.^
This now means your level of consumption is equal to:
Tips to reduce your drinking
Our top four alternatives to alcohol
Links to additional support
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