One Drink

How big is a standard drink, as generally cited in the U.S.?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, in which moderate drinking is defined, say:

Count as a drink—

• 12 ounces of regular beer (150 calories)
• 5 ounces of wine (100 calories)
• 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (100 calories)

Moderation Management is a bit more specific in its definition of moderate limits:

Standard drink:

• one 12 oz-beer (5% alcohol); or,
• one 5-oz glass wine (12% alcohol); or,
• 1½ oz of 80-proof liquor (40% alcohol)

Each of these contains 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol. The Moderate Drinking book adds this information about drink sizes:

Special Note

To calculate a standard drink for other types of beverages, divide 0.6 [for 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol] by the percentage of alcohol in the beverage. (The alcohol content of most beverages is printed on the label. If it is not, contact the producer and ask for this information.) For example, if you want to know how many ounces of fortified wine there are in a standard drink, you would take 0.6 and divide by 0.2, since there is 20% alcohol in fortified wine. The result is 3 ounces of fortified wine. The amount of light beer (4.2% alcohol) that equals one standard drink is: 0.6 divided by 0.042, which equals 14 ounces. If the concentration of alcohol is listed as “proof,” as in 80-proof liquor, divide the proof by 2 to get the percentage of alcohol — 80 divided by 2 equals 40 percent.

The standard drink unit has been changed in this edition of Moderate Drinking from 0.5 ounces of pure alcohol to 0.6 ounces. This is the standard used in Canada and it translates to more practical portion sizes. Beer is most often sold in 12-ounce bottles, and most regular beers are now 5% alcohol (not 4%). In restaurants, wine is typically poured in 5-ounce portions, and drinks containing hard liquor usually contain 1½ ounces of distilled spirits. The BAC charts … reflect this change.

The International Center For Alcohol Policies notes that the concept of a standard drink varies from country to country:

Though a number of governments have issued “standard drink” specifications based on the amount of pure ethanol, these vary greatly from country to country. For example, the United States government defines a “standard drink” as 14 grams of ethanol: 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of spirits. But this standard does not apply in many other countries. In the United Kingdom, a “standard unit” contains the equivalent of 8 grams of ethanol; in Japan, the equivalent of 19.75 grams of ethanol constitutes a standard drink.

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