Average Briton drinks 84 times their bodyweight in alcohol

The average adult consumes 84 times their body weight in alcoholic drinks over the course of their life, say researchers.

Or, to put it another way, if all the drinks we consume in our lifetime were to be placed on a giant pair of scales, they would weigh the equal of an adult bull elephant.

Enlarge   Carol Vorderman at the launch of the ALCulator, a tool which is part of Lloyds pharmacy's Neighbourhood Health Watch programme, at the Spice Buffet Pub in Birmingham

On average, Britons drink 3.7 pints of beer, or 8.5 large glasses of wine, each week.

If they were to sustain this for 60 years they would consume 11,800 pints – which weighs in at 6.6tons.

For an average adult weighing 12 and a half stone, this works out as 84 times their body weight, according to figures compiled by Lloyds Pharmacy.

The research warns that many drinkers consume around 1,000 calories each week just from alcohol.

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They also say the average Briton spends £770 a year on drink.

Academics have said that alcohol could soon overtake smoking as a leading cause of death and blame drink for many cancers as well as high blood pressure and a surge in liver disease.

Britain has one of the highest rates of binge drinking in Europe, and alcohol is believed to cause 40,000 deaths a year.

For more information on the Alculator please visit www.lloydspharmacy.com/alculator