by Lisa Frederiksen
We label our food products, why not label our alcohol products?
More then 3 in 4 Americans (76%) chose the “Standard Drink†label below because it included the notation, “a standard drink contains 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol,†according to the findings of Shape Up America! (founded in 1994 by former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop) 2007 Alcohol Labeling Poll. (1)
Standard Drink Label
Serving facts
Serving Size                                      12 fl oz (355 ml)
Servings Per Container                                    1
Amount Per Serving
Calories                                    153
Fat                                       0g
Carbohydrate                                  13g
Protein                                     1g
Alcohol by volume                                     5%
Fl oz of alcohol                                     *0.6
*Â A standard drink contains 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol
Why might this kind of standard drink labeling be important? A standard drink is defined as 5 ounces of wine OR 12 ounces of beer OR 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (vodka, for example), yet people often don’t know this, nor do they know what it “looks like†when poured. As a result, people often over drink, consuming more alcohol than they’d ever imagined, in spite of their efforts to limit themselves to 1 or 2 drinks/day. (2)
A June 18, 2008 U.S. News and World Report article by Randy Dotinga, for example, reported the findings of a 2007 study of 80 bars and restaurants in Northern California conducted by the Public Health Institute’sAlcohol Research Group (one of 18 National Alcohol Research Centers funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). According to Dotinga’s article, the study found “the average glasses of wine and mixed drinks were 42 percent to 43 percent larger, and the average draft beer was 22 percent larger. (Bottled beers weren’t measured.) Glasses of wine, meanwhile, typically packed more alcohol per volume — 14 percent instead of 12 percent — than those used to define a standard drink.†This means that customers are often drinking far more than they know, in spite of trying to limit their consumption to just one or two drinks.
So, please pass this information along to your state or national legislators. Adopting legislation to create this kind of standard drink labeling is an important step in a long battle to address America’s alcohol abuse and alcoholism problems.
______________________________________________________
(1) To download a PDF of the complete survey, visit the website, http://www.shapeup.org/, and scroll down to Serving Up Alcohol, Online Survey Findings.
(2) The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Clinician’s Guide’s reports the following Safe Drinking Limits:
- for women: no more than 3 in a day NOR 7 in a week
- for men: no more than 4 in a day NOR 14 in a week.
by Lisa Frederiksen
We label our food products, why not label our alcohol products?
More then 3 in 4 Americans (76%) chose the “Standard Drink†label below because it included the notation, “a standard drink contains 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol,†according to the findings of Shape Up America! (founded in 1994 by former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop) 2007 Alcohol Labeling Poll. (1)
Standard Drink Label
Serving facts
Serving Size                                      12 fl oz (355 ml)
Servings Per Container                                    1
Amount Per Serving
Calories                                    153
Fat                                       0g
Carbohydrate                                  13g
Protein                                     1g
Alcohol by volume                                     5%
Fl oz of alcohol                                     *0.6
*Â A standard drink contains 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol
Why might this kind of standard drink labeling be important? A standard drink is defined as 5 ounces of wine OR 12 ounces of beer OR 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (vodka, for example), yet people often don’t know this, nor do they know what it “looks like†when poured. As a result, people often over drink, consuming more alcohol than they’d ever imagined, in spite of their efforts to limit themselves to 1 or 2 drinks/day. (2)
A June 18, 2008 U.S. News and World Report article by Randy Dotinga, for example, reported the findings of a 2007 study of 80 bars and restaurants in Northern California conducted by the Public Health Institute’sAlcohol Research Group (one of 18 National Alcohol Research Centers funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). According to Dotinga’s article, the study found “the average glasses of wine and mixed drinks were 42 percent to 43 percent larger, and the average draft beer was 22 percent larger. (Bottled beers weren’t measured.) Glasses of wine, meanwhile, typically packed more alcohol per volume — 14 percent instead of 12 percent — than those used to define a standard drink.†This means that customers are often drinking far more than they know, in spite of trying to limit their consumption to just one or two drinks.
So, please pass this information along to your state or national legislators. Adopting legislation to create this kind of standard drink labeling is an important step in a long battle to address America’s alcohol abuse and alcoholism problems.
______________________________________________________
(1) To download a PDF of the complete survey, visit the website, http://www.shapeup.org/, and scroll down to Serving Up Alcohol, Online Survey Findings.
(2) The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Clinician’s Guide’s reports the following Safe Drinking Limits:
- for women: no more than 3 in a day NOR 7 in a week
- for men: no more than 4 in a day NOR 14 in a week.