Know Your Units
The NHS recommends that:
- Men should not regularly drink more than three to four units of alcohol per day.
- Women should not regularly drink more than two to three units of alcohol per day.
You should also take a break for 48 hours after a heavy session to let your body recover.
Pregnant women or women trying to conceive should avoid drinking alcohol. If they do choose to drink, to protect the baby, they should not drink more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk.
Additional advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) advises women to avoid alcohol in the first three months in particular, because of the increased risk of miscarriage.
The NHS gives daily limits for regular drinking to make it clear that you can’t store up your whole week’s ‘allowance’ until the weekend and then drink heavily (this type of heavy or binge drinking is often harmful). The different limits are set as ranges (‘one to two’, ‘two to three’ and ‘three to four’ units) because there isn’t one single amount that applies to every person every day.
The limits are lower for women because women’s bodies have a higher ratio of fat to water than men, making them less able to dilute alcohol in the body and they do not process alcohol as effectively.
