The Smaller the Better: Bigger Wine Glasses May Lead to Drinking More

Next time you go for a night out and don't want to end up with a bad hangover in the morning, serve yourself a drink from a smaller glass. According to a new study published in the BMC Public Health journal, drinking wine in larger wine glasses is likely to encourage people to drink more, even when the amount of the wine remains the same."We found that increasing the size of wine glasses, even without increasing the amount of wine, leads people to drink more," said Rachel Pechey from University of Cambridge in Britain."One reason may be that larger glasses change our perceptions of the amount of wine, leading us to drink faster and order more," Pechey added.For the study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, the team analysed wine selling in a restaurant for 16-weeks.Over this period, the venue alternated their wine glasses. The size of the glasses was changed at fortnightly intervals, alternating between the standard 300 ml size, a larger 370 ml glass and smaller 250 ml glasses. At the end of 16 weeks, researchers at the University of Cambridge in Britain showed that increasing the size of wine glasses led to nearly 10 per cent increase in wine sales."This suggests that avoiding the use of larger wine glasses could reduce the amount that people drink. However, we need more research to confirm this effect," noted Professor Theresa Marteau. Alcohol consumption is one of the leading risk factors conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and liver disease. With inputs from IANS