It is well-documented that drinking and related health problems are on the rise in Europe. However, instead of the consumer taking the blame, drinking establishments have recently come under fire for increasingly serving only large measures of alcohol and not giving us the choice to drink responsibly. Hurrah! Someone else to blame!

Irresponsible Bars
According to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), pubs and bars are acting "irresponsibly" by deliberately increasing the size of their wine glasses and often giving double shots at standard prices.

Originally, a 125ml glass of wine was considered to be standard or "small" measure, however these have largely been done away with in favour of 175ml glasses. Also, a "large" measure is now considered to be 250ml, which is already a 3rd of a bottle!

Supersizing Alcohol
Ian Gilmore, president of the RCP states clearly that it's the industry, and not the consumer, that is at fault, "The industry is being irresponsible and must improve its marketing practices. It isn't appropriate for alcoholic beverages to be 'supersized' in this way.

"Alcohol is not a typical product like soap powder or crisps where marketers might legitimately encourage people to buy more. Alcohol is an addictive substance with adverse health affects and safety risks."

However, the industry fought back, claiming that it was only responding to public demand for measures to match the amount we drink at home. Mark Hastings of the Beer and Pub Association says, "People felt short-changed in pubs because we were selling 125ml glasses [in the 1980s]. So the pub sector moved to serving us in exactly the same way as people drink in their own homes. In other words it's what people want to buy."

Binge Drinking
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction is worried about binge driniking, and reports that the proportion of 15- to 16-year-olds indulging in binge drinking (meaning five or more drinks in a row) rose from 47 to 57% in Ireland during the late 1990s and from 37% to 50% in Norway.

In the 10 eastern and southern EU accession countries, 60% of 15- to 16-year-olds admit having been drunk at least once. In the existing EU, between 36% (Portugal) and 89% (Denmark) of this age group said they had been drunk.

Healthy In Moderation
In a study conducted at the University of Carolina, it was found that middle-aged non-drinkers were likely to benefit from protection against heart disease if they took to drinking something once a day.