Use The Half-Glass Rule to Avoid Drinking Too Much

All those looking to cut down on the amount of wine they drink, pay attention!Pouring the right amount of wine can be a challenge. Especially when you're dealing with different shapes of glasses. A new research done at Iowa State and Cornell University has shown that people tend to pour more when they're pouring into a wider glass and following a half-glass rule can help to curb that.Laura Smarandescu, assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State University said, "About 70 percent of the people in the study used the half-glass rule and they poured significantly less by about 20 percent. It is a big difference."The study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy asked 74 wine drinking college students to pour a glass of wine under 16 different conditions: Size glasses, pouring positions, place sittings etc. Researchers found that men with an average BMI poured 9 percent more wine than women with average BMI.The study showed that those at risk for over-pouring wine were overweight men, those having a high Body Mass Index (BMI). Laura added, "If you're a man, how much wine you pour goes up with BMI. Which is why using the rule is even more important for men than for women."Of the men who did not use the half-glass rule, those with a higher BMI poured as much as 31 percent more wine than usual and the ones with a relatively lower BMI poured 26 percent more wine. While BMI did not affect how much women poured, those at the midpoint of the normal BMI poured 27 percent less when using the half-glass rule than those who did not.Researchers expected that men would always pour more than women no matter what.Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University concluded by saying, "Next time you open a bottle, serve yourself half a glass - regardless of the size of your glass - and you will be less likely to accidentally drink too much."

With inputs from IANS