https://www.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/top-medical-news/article/2018/01/05/7499116/?
Healthline/Medical News Today
As
you toast a better year, check out the size of the wine glass; whether
it's small, medium, or large, it is still seven times larger than what
it was 300 years ago. According to a new study, this increase in size
may well be the reason that we drink so much more today.
A new study published in the Christmas edition of The BMJ looks at the changes in wine glass size over time and the evolution of our drinking habits.
Theresa Marteau, a professor of behavior and health at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, led the research.
As Prof. Marteau and colleagues note in their study, alcohol consumption has increased dramatically in recent decades.
Wine
drinking, in particular, increased by nearly four times from 1960 to
1980 and went on to almost double between 1980 and 2004.
Why
is that? It is widely accepted that the increased affordability and
availability of wine led to an increase in consumption, but the new
research suggests that the size and design of wine glasses may also have
contributed to this.
In
much the same way that larger plates are believed to have led to
greater food consumption, so might glass size have triggered a higher
wine intake, the researchers hypothesize.
Wine glasses seven times larger today
Using
online databases and interviewing antique glassware experts, Prof.
Marteau and colleagues collected information on the size of 411 wine
glasses between the years 1700 and 2017.
Some
of the sources that were used for studying glass size were the
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, the
Royal Household, the catalogs of manufacturer Dartington Crystal, and
the website of the John Lewis department store.
The
analysis revealed that the size of wine glasses has increased by
seven-fold in the past 300 years. Specifically, the capacity of the
glasses increased from around 66 milliliters in the year 1700 to around
449 milliliters in 2017.
"[Wine
glass] capacity has increased most steeply over the past two decades,
along with wine consumption," write the researchers.
Glass size policies may reduce drinking
Prof.
Marteau and colleagues note that given the observational nature of the
study, they cannot infer a causal link between the increase in wine
glass capacity and that in wine consumption.
But
they also add, "While this association may not be causal, some evidence
of a link between wine glass size and drinking suggests that reducing
the size of wine glasses in licensed premises and in our homes could
reduce consumption."
To
this end, they list some suggestions for new policies, such as,
"Encouraging wine producers and retailers to make non-premium bottles of
wine available in 50 cL [centiliter] and 37.5 cL sizes, with
proportionate pricing."
This may "encourage drinkers to downsize their wine glasses so that one bottle fills more glasses," they add.
However,
the study authors predict that the "palatability [of these suggestions]
will be greater in the month of January than in December."
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