Low-risk drinking definitions
People who want to know if the amount of alcohol they drink is likely to have negative health effects, often rely on governmental guidelines. But Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have found that many countries give different definitions of low-risk drinking, which is the amount of alcohol that a person can consume without having a bad influence on our health. Some countries, like the US, assign different daily or weekly limits for men and women, while others, like Australia, don’t differentiate by gender. People in Australia are told that they shouldn't drink more than 20 grams each day, while American women are allowed to drink 42 grams per day but no more than 98 grams per week. In contrast, men in the US are told that they can safely drink 56 grams per day and up to 196 per week. Meanwhile, the upper weekly limit for men in Poland is much higher, which is 280 grams per week.
Moreover, the definition of a standard drink in each country is different, although WHO defines a standard drink as one that contains 10 grams of alcohol. For example one in Austria contains 20 grams of alcohol, while those in Iceland and UK contain 8 grams. Countries often create their own guidelines, despite the opinions of experts.
It would be interesting to see what these differences are caused by: tradition (in some countries people have always been drinking more), climate (in cold places people can drink more to get energy), economy (the state wants more alcohol to sell) ?
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