You’ve probably seen the number 14 splashed across every health poster in every GP surgery in the country. It’s the "magic number" from the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMO). But honestly, most people have no clue what it means in the real world. Is it two bottles of wine? A dozen beers? A single wild Friday night?
It's actually much less than you think.
The NHS and various health bodies aren't just picking numbers out of a hat to ruin your weekend. This limit—14 units a week—is specifically designed to keep the risk of alcohol-related illnesses like cancer or liver disease at a "low" level. Notice they don't say "no" risk. Just low. If you’re consistently hitting 14 or blowing past it, you’re playing a different game with your long-term health.
So, what is 14 units of alcohol in actual drinks?
Let’s get practical. A "unit" is a scientific measurement. Specifically, it's 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol. Since we don't drink pure ethanol from a beaker, we have to do some math. Or, better yet, just look at the glass in front of you.
If you are a fan of average-strength lager or beer (around 4%), 14 units is basically six pints. That’s it. If you go to the pub three times a week and have two pints each time, you've hit your limit. If you prefer the heavier stuff, like a 5.2% craft IPA, 14 units drops down to about five cans.
Wine is where it gets really tricky because glass sizes are a total trap.
Most people pour a "large" glass at home. That’s 250ml. If that wine is 13% ABV (Alcohol by Volume), one single glass is 3.25 units. Do the math: four and a bit glasses, and you’re at 14. If you’re sharing a bottle of wine with a partner over dinner, you’re each clocking about 4.5 to 5 units depending on the strength. Three nights of "just sharing a bottle" and you’ve sailed past the weekly recommendation.
For the spirit drinkers, a single shot (25ml) of 40% vodka, gin, or whiskey is exactly one unit. That sounds easy to track, right? Except most bars now serve doubles as standard, and home pours are notoriously generous. A "home double" is often more like a triple. 14 units is 14 single shots.
The science behind the 14-unit threshold
Why 14? Why not 10 or 20?
The guidelines were updated significantly in 2016. Before that, men and women had different limits. Now, the 14-unit rule applies to everyone. The experts at the University of Sheffield and other institutions looked at the data and realized that for both sexes, drinking above this level causes the risk of dying from an alcohol-related condition to rise significantly.
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It’s about the "J-curve." For some conditions, a tiny bit of alcohol doesn't seem to do much. But once you hit a certain point, the risk curve shoots up like a rocket. 14 units is the point where the risk of things like colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and heart disease starts to move from "negligible" to "measurable."
Dame Sally Davies, the former Chief Medical Officer, was quite blunt about it: there is no "safe" level of drinking. There is only a "low risk" level. 14 units is that line in the sand.
Spreading it out vs. Binging
Here is the part everyone ignores.
You cannot "save up" your 14 units for Saturday night. If you drink all 14 units in one sitting, you aren't "within the guidelines." You’re binge drinking. The body is remarkably good at processing small amounts of toxins over time, but it hates being flooded.
When you dump 14 units into your system in six hours, your liver can't keep up. Acetaldehyde—a nasty, toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism—builds up in your blood. This causes inflammation. It thrashes your gut lining. It messes with your sleep architecture, meaning even if you "pass out" for eight hours, your brain never actually hits the restorative REM cycles it needs.
The official advice is to spread those units over three days or more. If you have 14 units, but you take at least two or three "dry days" a week, your organs actually have a chance to repair the micro-damage.
The hidden calories in 14 units
We talk about units for health, but we should talk about the waistline too. Alcohol is calorically dense. It's almost as fat-heavy as pure oil in terms of calories per gram.
14 units of typical lager is roughly 1,000 to 1,500 calories. That’s the equivalent of eating five or six cheeseburgers every week on top of your normal food. If you’re wondering why the gym isn't working, your "low risk" drinking habit might be providing you with an entire extra day’s worth of calories every single week.
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Wine is similar. 14 units of red wine is about 1,100 calories. That’s a lot of running on a treadmill just to break even.
How to track 14 units without losing your mind
It's annoying to count units while you’re trying to relax. I get it. Nobody wants to be the person at the party with a calculator. But once you internalize what 14 units of alcohol actually looks like, it becomes second nature.
- Check the label. Almost every bottle or can sold in the UK now has a little icon showing exactly how many units are in that specific container.
- The ABV trick. If you want to be a nerd about it, multiply the total volume of a drink (in ml) by its ABV (as a percentage) and divide by 1,000. So, a 500ml can of 5% cider: $(500 \times 5) / 1000 = 2.5 \text{ units}$.
- Use an app. "Try Dry" or the NHS Drink Free Days app does the heavy lifting for you.
- Standardize your pours. If you drink spirits at home, buy a 25ml or 50ml thimble measure. It’s a game changer for realizing how much you’re actually consuming.
Real-world scenarios: Are you over the limit?
Let's look at three "normal" people.
Person A: The Weekend Warrior
They don't drink Monday to Thursday. Friday night they have four gin and tonics (doubles). Saturday, they have three bottles of premium beer at a BBQ.
- Friday: 8 units.
- Saturday: Approximately 6 units.
- Total: 14 units. This person is right on the line, but because they drank 8 units in one night, they technically hit the "binge" criteria (which is 8 units for men, 6 for women).
Person B: The "Glass of Wine with Dinner" Habit
They have one large (250ml) glass of 13% Malbec four nights a week.
- Total: 13 units. They are under the 14-unit limit. This is a classic low-risk drinker, provided they don't start topping up that glass.
Person C: The Craft Beer Fan
They drink two 440ml cans of 6.5% IPA on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
- Each can is about 2.9 units.
- Total: 17.4 units. This person thinks they are a light drinker because they only have two beers. But because those beers are strong, they are nearly 25% over the recommended weekly limit.
Why the limits matter more as you age
As we get older, our body composition changes. We tend to have less water in our bodies and more fat. Alcohol is water-soluble. This means there is less "space" for the alcohol to dilute in your bloodstream, leading to a higher Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) than a younger person would have from the exact same drink.
Your liver also produces less alcohol dehydrogenase (the enzyme that breaks the stuff down). That 14-unit limit starts to feel a lot heavier when you're 50 than it did when you were 22. The hangovers last longer because your body literally cannot clear the toxins as fast.
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Actionable steps for staying under 14 units
If you’ve realized you’re actually drinking 25 or 30 units a week (which is incredibly common), don't panic. You don't have to go cold turkey unless you want to. Small shifts make the biggest difference.
1. Downsize your glassware. Swap the balloon wine glasses for smaller 125ml or 175ml glasses. You’ll find you still drink the same "number" of glasses, but your unit intake will drop by 30-50%.
2. The "Spacer" Rule. For every alcoholic drink, have one large glass of water. It slows down your drinking pace and keeps you hydrated, which helps your liver process the alcohol more efficiently.
3. Explore the 0.5% market. The quality of alcohol-free beers and spirits has exploded recently. Swapping just two of your "real" beers for 0.5% versions can easily shave 5 units off your weekly total without changing your routine.
4. Don't "top up." Wait until your glass is completely empty before refilling. When people top up half-full glasses, they lose track of how many units they’ve actually had. It’s the easiest way to accidentally drink a whole bottle of wine.
5. Start later. If you usually crack a beer at 6:00 PM while cooking, try pushing it to 7:30 PM. Simply narrowing the "drinking window" naturally reduces the amount you consume.
Understanding 14 units isn't about being restrictive; it’s about having the data to make an informed choice. Whether you decide to stick to it or not is up to you, but at least now you know exactly what’s in your glass. Check your favorite bottle tonight—the number might surprise you.