Imagine going to a bar or pub for a drink. You decide to order a wine glass. The waiter will ask you, "Large or small." The waiter will ask you, "Large or small?" You may think about it for a while. Or maybe you don't need one. You'll say "large"; maybe you think it's better value; or "small" doesn't seem like enough. In England, however, the standard large wine glass is 250 milliliters (ml), which is about one-third of a standard bottle of wine. If you drink a second one, you'll have consumed two-thirds of the bottle.
What if you were only allowed to order a maximum of 175 ml per serving? What if the maximum serving you could order was smaller, say 175 ml? You would have realized that it was a smaller serving, which might have led you to drink more. Would you just stick to your normal number of drinks and not think twice about exactly how much is in each glass?
When people are served larger portions, they eat more. They also eat from larger packages and plates. This has been shown in a Cochrane systematic review The study was conducted in 2015. The impact of alcohol-related size changes, such as glasses, bottles or portions, had not been studied at that time. In the years since, several studies have been conducted. Review in 2022.
Evidence from real-world situations shows that smaller wine glasses can help reduce the amount of wine consumed. As well as to the house. The small 500 ml bottles are ideal for drinking This may help reduce the amount of alcohol consumed at home. The idea of reducing the amount of alcohol served in bars and restaurants seems promising, but there are no concrete results to support this idea.
A study was conducted to address this problem. Register with the ISRCTN registryWe asked 21 English pubs, restaurants and bars to remove their 250ml wine glasses from the menu for 4 weeks.
The total volume of wine consumed daily during the intervention periods was compared with the amount sold during the non-intervention period. Removing the largest portion of wine (typically 250 ml) from the wine glass reduced the volume by 7.6 %. However, there was no evidence that beer and cider sales or daily revenues were affected.
These results show the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce alcohol consumption in the general population. However, we do not know whether the same effect would be achieved by removing the maximum portion of other drinks such as beer.
Beer dispensing systems
The study aimed to determine the effect of replacing the imperial pint (568ml) with two-thirds of a pint. After contacting more than 2,000 pubs and bars in England, we found that none were prepared to 'spoil' the iconic pint.
For centuries, the pint has been the standard serving size of beer in England. In British culture, the phrase "have a pint of beer" is synonymous with drinking one. In England, draught beers must be available in half-pints (284) and pints (568 ml) to meet legal requirements. Two-thirds pints (379 ml), one-third pints (189 ml) and three-quarter pints (568 ml) can be purchased, but licensed premises are not required to do so.
Rather, we rose to the challenge when we were faced with it. Study In which 13 licensed premises were asked to introduce a 2/3 pint (379ml) option into their range for four weeks while continuing to offer pints. The volume of cider or beer sold was not affected.
Our renewed efforts last year were more successful than our first attempts, which took place about four years ago. Perhaps this reflects the new times of the post-pandemic period, where payment to participate in the study is a greater incentive. Perhaps our better persuasive skills are to blame.
We succeeded in our study for one reason or another. Register on ISRCTNIn England, 13 bars, pubs and restaurants removed their largest servings of beer (an imperial pint, or 568ml), so that the largest size they offered was two-thirds of a pint. In places where two-thirds of a pint was not normally served, establishments added this size to their menus in tandem with the pint removal. Soon, the highly anticipated results will be published. However, preliminary analysis suggests that the intervention has been successful in reducing daily beer sales.
Illustration of the interventions that were used to study the effects of eliminating the largest portion of wine and beer
These studies show that people can control their alcohol consumption by reducing the size of wine and beer served in pubs, restaurants and bars. It is time to consider alcohol licensing laws that limit the amount of wine or beer served per glass – to a size smaller than the current cap.
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