Mixing Alcohol With Diet Soda May Make You Drunker

npr ^

[SMGFan]

Looking to cut back on the calories in your cocktail by mixing, say, diet soda and rum? Well, get ready for the buzz.

According to the results of a new study, this combination will leave you drunker than if you'd mixed the liquor with a sugary, caloric mixer.

"Alcohol, consumed with a diet mixer, results in higher (BrAC) Breath Alcohol Concentrations as compared to the same amount of alcohol consumed with a sugar-sweetened mixer," says Cecile Marczinski, a cognitive psychologist who authored the new study.

Why? Turns out that sugar slows down the absorption of alcohol from the stomach to the bloodstream.

[gundog]

You don’t expect me to just take yer word for it, do you?

[gundog]

llll

[gundog]

llll

[Utah Binger]

Hey it’s 4:00 pm in southern Utah....And Mark Levin is on in four minutes.

Mixing up a vodka and a touch of Peach Nectar. You heard that correctly. A nectar martini.

Three hours of easy listening.

[elkfersupper]

Only amateurs and predators use mixers.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Yup. I almost never mix my booze with anything, except ice cubes.

[Disambiguator]

Then add the Mentos when you’re ready for projectile vomiting.

[Dutch Boy]

Yup, just like the warnings in chemistry books and on product warning labels. Caution! Mixing A with B can be explosive.... hmmm, that might almost be a recipe for a bomb disguised as a warning.

[BfloGuy]

Well, if you are drinking to get drunk anyway...

And, truth be known, why else would you drink?

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The dimension of time is missing from this report. We're told that diet drinks make you 18% drunker than sugary drinks. We're not told when those measurements were taken. It's not likely that the BAC was measured immediately after the drink. The alcohol needs some time to get into the blood stream.

Let's assume they measure the BAC one hour after drinking & at that time the BAC is higher if you used a diet mixer. It stands to reason that, at some point, the BAC is going to be lower, if you had a diet drink. The article does say that the sugar simply slows down the absorption of the alcohol. Therefore, at some point, the BAC resulting from the diet mixer, and the BAC resulting from using a sugary mixer would be identical. After that point, the diet mixer would leave you less drunk than the drinking booze with a sugary mixer.

IOW, if you want a sustained drunk -- use a sugary mixer. If you want to get drunk and sober up quickly -- use a diet mixer. If you want to sober up, after a party, so you can drive home (or so you can have a quick shave, and go to work right after the party) - use diet mixers.