Your beer glass might soon become smaller — and this time, it’s not about shrinkflation.
A group of scientists in the UK — interested in finding innovative ways to encourage the public to cut back on excessive drinking — have released findings of a study involving a dozen pubs, bars and restaurants where pint glasses were swapped out for something slightly smaller.
The research, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, suggested that offering two-thirds of a pint as the largest size in drinkeries nationwide might be a boon for public health.
Researchers noted that during the trial, beer sales fell 9.7%. The move could lessen the extent of alcohol-related suffering, they said.
Stateside, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), there are more than 178,000 deaths each year related to excessive alcohol use — making alcohol one of the leading preventable causes of death.
The British pint, known as the Imperial pint, contains 20 fluid oz., while the American pint contains 16 oz. — already approximately 20% less than across the pond.
“Alcohol harms our health, increasing the risk of injury and many diseases including heart disease, bowel, breast and liver cancers,” Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, study leader and director of the behavior and health research unit at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement.
“While we may all enjoy a drink, the less we drink the better our health. Removing the largest serving size for beer, lager and cider — in this case, the pint — could encourage people to drink less. This could be beneficial both to the nation’s health and the health of individuals,” Marteau said.
The test was based on the idea that people often think in portions rather than portion sizes, grabbing one beer or one glass of wine, rather than sitting around debating milliliters or grams.
When a similar trial with wine was conducted earlier this year, wine sales fell when the largest glass size was taken away.
Marteau and her team asked bars across the country to scrap the pint serving size and instead offer two-thirds as the largest option for four weeks, with four-week non-intervention periods before and after as a comparison.
While doing this reduced the daily mean volume of beer, lager and cider, it did increase the sale of wine.
Customers themselves did not complain, the researchers reported, but the venues were hesitant. Fewer than 1% of venues approached agreed to participate, and only 13 establishments were ultimately involved.
Matt Beety, owner of one of the participating venues, told The Guardian that customer mentality was already shifting away from the pint toward something smaller, and while some questioned why they couldn’t get a pint, most just went along with the new rules.
“Removing the offer of pints in 13 licensed premises for 4 weeks reduced the volume of beer sold. This is in keeping with the emerging literature showing that smaller serving sizes help us drink less and presents a novel way of reducing alcohol consumption and improving population health,” the authors wrote.
The authors also noted that further research would need to be conducted — as findings were limited due to lack of information of whether people compensated for less beer by drinking other alcoholic drinks.
