Wine drinkers 'pile on calories'

That is the equivalent of 38 roast beef dinners or almost 184 bags of crisps a year, according to the Department of Health.

More than four out of 10 (42%) women surveyed for the Government's Know Your Limits campaign said they had no idea a glass of white wine had the same calories as a bag of crisps - and when it came to men, four out of 10 (40%) were unaware that a pint of lager had as many calories as a sausage roll.

A beer-drinker consuming five pints a week would add 44,200 calories to their intake over a year - equivalent to 221 doughnuts.

Two large glasses of white wine contain around 370 calories, which is almost a fifth of a woman's daily calorie allowance. It also pushes her over the recommended alcohol intake for one day.

The NHS recommends that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units of alcohol a day while women should not regularly drink more than two to three units a day.

A pint of lager at 5.2% strength contains three units, as does a large 250ml glass of wine.

In the poll of 1,954 adults, 37% of drinkers admitted that having more than two pints of beer or two glasses of wine makes them over-eat and ditch the healthy diet.

Almost one in three (29%) said they ordered crisps, nuts or pork scratchings to accompany their drinks, while 19% regularly grabbed a takeaway in the form of pizza, burger, a bag of chips or kebab. The poll also revealed that the morning-after fry-up seems to wreak havoc with people's health.

Almost two-thirds of drinkers (62%) who normally eat a bowl of cereal or muesli said they ditched that in favour of a less healthy breakfast following a big night out.