Want to drink less? Avoid large wine glasses!

Drinking wine in larger wine glasses is likely to encourage people to drink more, even when the amount of the wine remains the same, suggests new research published in the journal BMC Public Health. The findings showed that increasing the size of wine glasses led to nearly 10 per cent increase in wine sales.

Rachel Pechey from University of Cambridge in Britain said, “We found that increasing the size of wine glasses, even without increasing the amount of wine, leads people to drink more.” Alcohol consumption is one of the leading risk factors for disease and has been linked to conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and liver disease.

"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, the team analysed wine selling in a restaurant for 16-weeks. They changed the size of the wine glasses at fortnightly intervals, alternating between the standard (300ml) size, larger (370ml) and smaller (250 ml) glasses.

The volume of wine purchased daily was 9.4 per cent higher when sold in larger glasses compared to standard-sized glasses. "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 University of Cambridge Professor Theresa Marteau.