GIRL'S TIP: Christmas Drinking

During the festive season there's a lot of eating and drinking. Whether it's a staff Christmas party, catching up with friends or getting together with family, wine, champagne, beer and spirits can all be enjoyed in numbers. Whilst evidence shows that a little alcohol might be good, sadly more is not better, and drinking to excess is definitely harmful to your health and can often leave you doing things you wouldn't normally do. Before you start drinking this Christmas, take a few moments to think about what you're going to be consuming.

Standard drinks

A standard serve of alcohol is equal to 10g of alcohol which in terms of drinks equals:
- 100ml of wine
- 425ml of lite beer
- 285ml of full strength beer
- 30ml of spirits
- 60ml of fortified wine

More often than not, a glass of wine contains over 100ml of wine and the schooners of beer are definitely more than a standard drink. So you just may be consuming more drinks than you realise.

Number of drinks

It's recommended that girls have no more than two standard drinks per day and for those of you that have high blood pressure, the limit is one standard drinks of alcohol per day. Also, you need to include two alcohol free days each week and no, you can't save your daily drink intake for a binge session at the Christmas party.

Bad points of binge drinking
For those of you who do binge on alcohol, here's a snapshot of what it's doing to your health:

• Cancer - alcohol doesn't reduce the risk of nay cancers, but increases the risk the more you drink. Drinking more than five standard drinks a day will increase the likelihood of any cancer. Excessive drinking can increase cancers of the throat, oesophagus and airways into the lungs.
• Liver function - excess alcohol consumption can lead to cirrhosis - death of the cells in the liver. This can lead to many complications including ascites (excess fluid retention), portal hypertension (high blood pressure in the portal vein) and oesphageal varices (enlarged veins in the throat).
• Excess weight - alcoholic drinks contain a lot of kilojoules and excess consumption can lead to weight gain. We also tend to eat a lot of snack food such as potato chips, hot chips and kebabs which also contributes to excess weight gain.

Pointers for drinking at the party
Take these tips with your Christmas festivities this year:

• Choose wisely: You don't need to go to every party that comes up. Choose only the most important parties.
• Drink for enjoyment: Drink for enjoy and not intoxication. Your body will thank you in the morning.
• Go slow: Drink at your own pace. You don't have to keep up with everyone else. Buy or get your own drinks and skip the shouts.
• Alternate: Alternate your alcoholic drinks with a non-alcoholic drink.
• Dance instead: Spend more time on the dance floor. A lot of the time you're not allowed to glasses on the dance floor so this is bound to slow down your drinking.