If you consider yourself a 'foodie' then Christmas dinner will be one of the many meals of the year that you're looking forward to; Christmas pudding, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and of course the turkey! But have you ever considered that after your breakfast bubbly in the morning and a glass of wine during your dinner, you are most likely over the drink-drive limit? If you've been chosen to be the designated driver this Christmas, we want to make sure you're aware of just how many units you might be consuming, even if you're being careful.
Here at All Car Leasing, we have gathered information on which festive foods will put you in danger of going over the legal drink-drive limit, to help raise awareness around drink driving at Christmas.
Drink driving has become a major problem in the UK over the past decade, especially during the festive season. According to a study in 2017 from Rehab4Alcoholism, Brits increase their average alcohol intake by 40% over the Christmas period alone. Many are unaware of the potential dangers faced by consuming alcoholic food in combination with an alcoholic beverage with a meal. While it's perfectly acceptable to have a drink with your meal, it could be the food that edges you past the legal limit, resulting in heavy consequences in the event of a breathalyzer test. UK Gov has stated being in charge of a vehicle while above the legal limit or unfit through drink can potentially gain you 3 months imprisonment, a fine of up to £2,500, and a possible driving ban.
We've based our statistics on a man and a woman of average height and weight (Source: The Telegraph); the law currently allows men to drink up to four units, while for women it's three units, before going over the legal limit for driving. We have based our findings on these average units, however, there are also several additional factors that can influence how much alcohol is absorbed by the body, such as:
- Age, metabolism, weight
- The type of alcohol you're drinking
- What you've eaten recently
- Stress levels
You may be thinking, “but all the alcohol burns off while you're cooking, so how will this affect me?. It turns out that it's just a myth - experiments have proven that this is not the case. While cooking does cause the alcohol content to decrease, it doesn't happen nearly as fast as you might expect. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it can take over two hours for alcohol to be fully cooked out of food, so make sure you pay attention to what you're adding to your food and how much you are eating because it could land you or your guests in trouble!
Below we have listed a menu of delightful Christmas dishes that would take you over the drink driving limit of 80 micrograms.
From our infographic, statistics indicate that the choice between having a Christmas cake served with brandy butter (1.15 units) and Christmas fruit cake (0.33 units) can be the difference between being over the limit or not. Even having turkey basted in beer can add a whole unit of alcohol into your meal!
Last year we conducted a similar study into other ingredients and foods can take you over the limit, where we found out that if you eat 2 whole tiramisus or 5.5 whole Christmas cakes you will also end up over the limit. If you can fit either of those in after a full Christmas Dinner, then fair play to you!
Thank you for reading our Boozy Christmas blog, we hope you've learned something new and that we've helped to keep you a little bit safer over the festive season!
If you're interested in leasing your next motor, be sure to keep an eye out for our car lease deals! On top of our five-star service (Trustpilot), we're home to some of the best personal car leasing deals in the UK!
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