Having Just One Glass of Wine? How Can You Be Sure?

By SheSpeaksTeam Oct 11, 2013

If you’re trying to cut back on your wine intake the first thing you may want to consider is how much you are actually pouring into your glass. How we pour, what we are pouring and the particular wine glass we choose can make a huge difference as to how many servings we are really getting per glass.

The Los Angeles Times reports about a new study from Iowa State University highlighting how every person’s pour differs. Technically speaking, a glass of wine (especially at restaurants and bars) should be no more than 5 ounces, but when the 73 participants were asked to pour themselves a “normal” glass of wine the outcome was often dramatically different depending on a few variables.

Researchers found that when participants were given wider glasses they tended to pour 12% more wine into them. They also found that people will pour more wine into a glass when it is held in the hand rather than sitting on the table. White wine drinkers will also pour 9% more into their glass than red wine drinkers due to the “contrast of color”.

Douglas Walker, an assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State, explains how people should not think about how much wine they drink based on the amount of glasses they have had. He says, “One person’s two is totally different than another person’s two.” The authors advise wine drinkers to think about portion control in the same way they would with foods. Researchers write, “Increasing awareness of pouring biases is a step toward limiting alcohol intake for improved health outcomes and preventing alcohol-related problems.”

What do you think of the new study that suggests we tend to over-pour wine depending on different variables?