British researchers say that drinkers often fail to understand how many units of alcohol are contained in the drinks they consume and don't know the government's daily recommended consumption limits, the BBC reported May 19.

The U.K. Department of Health surveyed 1,429 drinkers and found that more than a third of those questioned did not know that the government recommends capping daily alcohol consumption at 2-3 units per day for women and 3-4 units daily for men.

Moreover, three-quarters of drinkers failed to realize that a large glass of wine contains three units of alcohol (most thought it contained two units).

"Glass sizes have grown larger and the strength of many wines and beers has increased, so it's no wonder some of us have lost track of our alcohol consumption," said Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo.

Researchers also found that 58 percent of drinkers did not realize that a double gin and tonic contained two units of alcohol, and that 35 percent did not know that a pint of beer contains more than two units of alcohol (a pint of some strong lagers actually equates to three units of alcohol).

The British government has launched a public-information campaign called Know Your Limits to try to educate drinkers about the alcohol contained in typical drinks as well as recommended daily limits. "We aim to give people the facts about how many units are in different drinks in a nonjudgmental way," said Primarolo. "Then they can then make their own assessments about how much they want to drink in the future."