I spent a fascinating amount of time learning more about our alcohol consumption.
The Institute of Alcohol Studies has estimated that the production and sale of alcohol was worth £46 billion. The alcohol industry is constantly on the rise even after huge drops in 2020.
What we have seen in the alcoholic drinks market is a shift into a health conscious consumer, emphasising moderation.
After lockdowns, loss of social events, drops in sales of alcohol for breweries and pubs combined with consumers alcohol behaviours - a recovery in alcoholic drinks sales would always be on the horizon but with a market influence to improve the information available to the consumer.
A lot of people don’t actually know:
• What 1 unit of alcohol really is (it’s 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol btw which is around how much alcohol you can typically process per hour)
• How many drinks or what that equates to?
Typically 1 shot or measure of a 40% spirit is 1 unit of alcohol.
A small glass of wine is around 1.5 units.
A pint of ‘session’ or ‘light’ ABV beer is around 2 units.
The uprise in heavy IPA and bespoke market for trendy heavy ale means that ABV of ale is increasing but to counteract the serving sizes in bars are smaller.
Consumers are now more than ever getting switched onto calories and alcohol levels in their drinks, with a reported 33% of people paying more attention to the calories.
The alcohol free market has boomed and there’s an increase in the demand of people wanting the choice of alcohol when out.
Ironically however, I found a lot of manufacturers don’t actually provide the calorie information on their labelling unless it’s been one of the new Hard Seltzers or “skinny brands”.
Even though the UK government has consulted on calorie labelling for alcohol drinks - it was still very tough to find calorie amounts on any bottle of branded wine, except for home brand purchases.
I went to Waitrose and Sainsburys to see which products are now populating these shelves and compared this to menus from a typical eatery (Miller and Carter, Revolution De Cuba, Hungry Horse) to find out more.
After perusing the stock and menu lists I found that some eateries only provides calorie amounts for alcohol free items, which is understandable, but could more be done to advise the consumer?
That’s why I have done this.
I work with people whose lives involve alcohol.
Sometimes their job and their role includes that too.
To help my clients and their long term health I can now divulge more information to help them make a reasonable change as practically suitable to their environment and situations to help them and their health, needs and goal.
It’s my job to be fascinated by food, behaviour and information and that’s exactly how I help get people informed and find their own solution.