I am using the "Standard Drinks Calculator" at http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com/cal ... nks&sid=48

Does anyone know why the drink calculator varies so much between countries?

For example drinking 200 ml at 56% yields 11 drinks in the UK but only 4.48 drinks in Japan. The differences are large by almost a factor of 3.

Any ideas?

It's mostly cultural. The Japanese unit is based off of a "go" of saki, The American unit is based off of a "shot" (44ml) of 80 proof (40%) whiskey. Canada just took the US unit and converted it to metric. The UK decided to simplify a "unit of alcohol" to 10ml of 100% EtOH. The Aussies just had to be different by using weight instead of volume, and use 10g of EtOH as a standard drink.

The English Unit makes the most sense to me, but I will stick with the larger American unit. 100 units a week sounds way better that 140 units a week.

Hi Mac

the important thing is consistency - so you are measuring your target (if that is anything above zero) and your ongoing consumption in the same manner. After that, as long as you're going in the right direction, you're benefiting.

Personally I think the UK system is by far the easiest to use. All alcohol (AFAIK) is sold by percentage volume. Add up the number of litres of your favourite beverage you've drunk. Divide that by 10 and multiply by the % alcohol and you know the units you've consumed. Or, if like most of us, you have a regular tipple, then figure out once how many units are in a typical container - e.g. pint, can, bottle etc and use that as your basis