According to the chief of Britain’s National Health Service, a glass of wine can do as much damage to a person’s health as three shots of vodka. Although this comparison may sound ridiculous, according to the experts, it all depends on what size glass you’re drinking from, and for the vast majority of us, that glass is way too big.

The glass you drink your wine from is more important than you might believe. A study from Iowa State and Cornell Universities found that individuals who drank from wider glasses poured themselves 11.9 percent more wine than those who had smaller glasses, according to the press release. “Participants were asked to pour the same amount at each setting, but they just couldn’t tell the difference,” Douglas Walker, one of the authors of the study, told The Independent.

The Daily Mail reported that now you will more likely be served a large 250 milliliter wine glass in a bar or restaurant over the traditional medium glass of only 175 milliliters. These bigger serving glasses mean people may be poured more wine whether they ask to or not.

Although young people are often credited with practicing unhealthy drinking habits, Duncan Selbie, head of Public Health England, says that older generations aren’t completely innocent either. “Increasingly too high levels of alcohol consumption are occurring in the home by older age groups and we all have a responsibility to challenge and help address this," he told the Daily Mail.

A glass of wine a day, every day, can quickly add up and have some serious health consequences. According to Selbie, a glass of wine and three shots of vodka have roughly the same amount of calories. Drinking this many extra calories a day, every day, can cause you to gain weight, especially in your belly area, CNN reported.

“People will see it is a very different thing pouring a glass of wine to pouring a three measure vodka but this is why it important to have caloric content on the labels — you wouldn't pour three shots of vodka but you also wouldn't sit down and eat six donuts — but you tend to pour yourself a large measure of wine not a small glass,” said Tracey Crouch, the former chair of the alcohol-misuse group Parliamentary Save The Pub Group, according to the Daily Mail.

If this sort of drinking pattern only causes you to put on extra weight, consider yourself lucky. Selbie also warned that because most people view wine as a safer option than vodka, they will tend to overindulge. This isn’t exactly true, especially when you’re drinking wine in large quantities. A large 250 milliliter glass of wine has three units of alcohol, while a single shot of vodka has only one, based on the UK’s standard of measuring alcohol content. This means that a large glass of wine has roughly the same alcohol content as three shots of vodka. Many are not aware of this and will drink far more than the recommended amount of alcohol in the form of wine.

This can lead to serious health conditions such as such liver disease, which Selbie referred to as a “silent killer.” Unfortunately three-quarters of people with cirrhosis are only ever diagnosed once they have been admitted to the hospital. The liver is the second largest organ in the body and responsible for many jobs such as removing harmful substances from your blood, according to The Liver Foundation. Alcohol can damage and even destroy the cells in the body, and cause the liver to be unable to successfully complete its necessary tasks.

Doctors will agree that if you're going to drink alcohol, please do so in moderation.