It may seem like a great idea to mix alcoholic drinks with diet soda to cut a few calories, but, believe it or not, fewer calories are not necessary better when it comes to mixed drinks.
A study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research shows that choosing the wrong mixer can make you get drunker than you’d hoped, and diet soda is the number one culprit.
The study found that drinking diet soda with alcohol could increase your buzz more than a full-caloried pop. Researchers confirmed this by serving study participants one of three drinks: a regular soda with alcohol, a diet soda with alcohol, and a regular soda scented like vodka. Then they measured the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) of each person and found that those who had drank the diet soda mixed drinks had 18% higher BrAC’s than the participants who drank the alcohol mixed with regular soda.
The reasoning behind these results?
Drinking booze with a diet mixer doesn’t provide anything to help your body digest the alcohol. So instead of some of the alcohol becoming digested along with the added calories and sugar of a regular soda, it passes more quickly through the stomach and into the small intestine and enters the bloodstream faster. So even if you’re dieting, it might be wise to opt for a mixer that has at least a few calories.
Other ways to ensure your blood alcohol concentration doesn’t get out of your control are consume food with your mixed drinks and try to alternate between drinking alcoholic beverages with non-alcoholic beverages. Even if you just have water to balance out your booze intake, a few glasses will keep you hydrated and minimize any potential hangover in the morning.
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