Stupid regulations again
Just read this story on the BBC website. Apparently, a restaurant owner is in trouble because he’s selling his beer by the litre rather than by the pint. Seems that all draught beer must be sold in either half-pint or pint glasses only.
The problem with this story is that the UK is supposedly a metric nation. Shop owners have been prosecuted for selling fruit and veg by the pound rather than the kilo, pubs must serve wine and spirits in millilitres, so why the complete opposite for beer? I know it’s traditional for beer to be sold in pints but why can’t it also be sold in litres if that’s what the owner wants to do? As long as he makes it clear what measure he’s using, why not?
Unfortunately, this is yet another example of the British inability to decide whether we’re one thing or another. Are we metric? Yes, sort of. Are we in Europe? Yes, sort of. Are we a sovereign nation? Yes, sort of. Hey guys, why don’t we make up our minds and just pick one?
Weights and measures
Part of Wolfie’s Nutrition Guide : An occasional series
Milli-whats?
I realise that my post the other day about vitamin C may have confused some people, because of the use of “mg”. As not everyone is familiar with the system of weights and measures that is used in relation to nutritional supplements, I thought I’d give you a brief guide.
Most vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are measured in milligrams or micrograms. These are indicated as “mg” for milligrams and “mcg” or “?g” for micrograms. (”?g” is the correct form, but you will see “mcg” in some places - particularly websites where the character set may not be 100% accurate).
In the same way that a gram (g) is a 1,000th part of a kilogram (kg), so a milligram is 1,000th of a gram and microgram is 1,000th of a milligram. So:
1 gram (1g) = 1,000 milligrams (1,000mg)
1 milligram (1mg) = 1,000 micrograms (1,000?g)
0.1 milligram (0.1mg) = 100 micrograms (100?g)
What are these IU things?
There are three special nutrients, though, that are also measured in International Units (iu). These are vitamins A, D and E. International Units are a system that was introduced to offer a standard for the potency of each of these three nutrients. They are all available in many different forms, all with different potencies, so by introducing International Units it was hoped to standardise things and make things clearer for the consumer.
Unfortunately, this didn’t really work because a different standard was adopted in some parts of the world. In the UK, however, this is how International Units are defined:
3.3iu vitamin A = 1?g retinol (pre-formed vitamin A) or 6?g beta carotene
40iu vitamin D = 1?g vitamin D
1iu d-alpha tocopherol equivalent (?-TE) = 0.67mg vitamin E
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