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Presenter Matt Woodley and his producer Jess Baker volunteered to make their drinking habits public and keep an online drinks diary.听 For extra support, Emily Wood from Spotlight and two of our local newspaper editors, Richard Best from the North Devon Journal and Marc Astley from the Express and Echo joined them.听 A late entry from Mike Trim from Exeter City Council's Cleansing Department completed the team of six.

The drink diaries project started after a report featured on the Countywide Breakfast Show claimed that almost 1 in 4 people aged between 16 and 64 in the SouthWest were classed as "hazardous drinkers".听

After seven days of scrupulous noting of each and every alcoholic drink that passed the groups' lips, the diaries were compiled and sent off for analysis by Consultant Hepatologist, Dr Jonathon Mitchell from Derriford Hospital.

"Binge" Levels

The staggering results showed that, far from 1 in 4 of us, a full FIVE in SIX of the team qualified as "hazardous drinkers".听 Furthermore, the same 5 volunteers also technically drank to "binge" levels on at least one day during the test.

Matt will chart everything he drinks

So, who were the winners and losers?听 In the name of science and in a bid to raise awareness of just how easy it is to exceed safe drinking limits, all volunteers gave up their patient anonymity and agreed to the results being published here.

Matt Woodley was the most saintly of the group (!) keeping well within his recommended 21 units a week and was given a clean bill of health by the doctor. He consumed just 7.5 units.听 Dr Mitchell even said Matt's low level drinking may benefit his health when compared to a non-drinker.

Jess Baker's diary showed consistent drinking throughout the week, although on weekdays, she was drinking very little.听 Even so, two events at the weekend pushed her units up to 19, five more than the recommended allowance for women. One evening counted as a "binge".听 Dr Mitchell said although she did class as a "hazardous drinker", her drinking habit wasn't excessive and advised her to leave a few days without alcohol during the week, to help her liver recover.

Emily Wood drank 22 and a half units over the week, binge drinking during a day out on Saturday.听 Her diary couldn't be absolutely accurate according to the doctor, as many of her measures were home measures.听 He cautioned her about the dangers of units adding up when drunk throughout the day and warned her to be careful of home measures which he has seen can be as many as 7 times pub measures!

Mike Trim from Exeter City Council took in 25 units across the week but gave himself two days off the alcohol and was praised for doing so by the doctor.听 Dr Mitchell said he too had exceeded the 21 unit limit for men, but not by a considerable amount.

Richard Best, editor of the North Devon Journal had a couple of social events during his week but described his tally as "normal".听 The resulting 33 units came as no real surprise and he felt his drinking levels were balanced by his lifestyle. However, he took on Dr Mitchell's advice to have some drink-free days during the week.

And finally, Marc Astley, editor of the Express and Echo drank the highest amount of units during the experiment and was shocked to hear his drinking tallied up to 36 units.听Although he took one day off during the week he was warned by Dr Mitchell that he was leaning towards the danger zone for heading towards "harmful" drinking levels which are classified as 50 units for men and 35 for women.

Marc and Richard have both kept a blog of their week long experiment which you can read via the links on this page. Jess and Matt's diaries are listed to the right.