Large wine glasses that are served in restaurants can limit the amount ofof the wine consumed. This emerges from new research from the University of Cambridge. The study found that restaurants that served wine in 370ml rather than 300ml glasses sold more of it. However, sales tended to drop when they used 250ml jars for this. However, the researchers did not observe these effects in bars.
Big wine glasses mean more alcohol
Alcohol consumption in womenand men is one of the most common causes of early death in high-income countries, but also worldwide. One way to reduce alcohol consumption in restaurants is to offer smaller wine glasses. However, until now the evidence of such a move has been inconclusive and often contradictory.
The size of glasses for wine has increased almost sevenfold in the last 300 years. This has doubled the most since 1990. During this time, the amount of wine consumed quadrupled, although the number of wine consumers remained constant. Wine sales in bars and restaurants either have fixed portion sizes when sold by the glass, or are sold by the bottle or carafe. This means that customers or employees can pour the wine as needed.
The preliminary study was carried out by researchers from the Department of Behavioral and Health Research at the University of Cambridge. This found that serving wine in larger wine glasses led to a significant increase in the amount of wine sold. The team used 300ml wine glasses as a reference to compare the differences in consumption.
Restaurants saw wine sales increase by 7.3% when they increased the glass size to 370ml. Reducing the glass size to 250ml resulted in a 9.6% decrease, although confidence intervals (the range of values within which researchers can be fairly certain their true value lies) make this number uncertain. Strangely, increasing the jar size further to 450ml made no difference compared to using 300ml jars.
Professor Ashley Adamson, director of the NIHR School of Public Health Research, said: “We all like to think we are immune to subtle influences on our behavior – like the size of a wine glass. However, research like this clearly shows that we are not.”
“This important oneStudyhelps us understand how the small, everyday details of our lives affect our behavior and therefore our health. Such evidence can shape policies that would make it easier for everyone to live a little healthier without having to think about it.”
