A new study reveals that people who mix alcohol with diet beverages end up exhaling more alcohol in their breath.
For example, persons who gulped down a vodka-and-diet-soda drink had higher concentration of alcohol on breathalyzers compared to those who gulped down vodka-and-regular-soda drink.
Researchers from Drug and Alcohol Dependence write that people who are conscious with their calorie intake by taking drinks with less sugar would end up having higher level of alcohol concentration in their breath.
This goes to say that if you want to have toxic alcohol breath, you should drink the alcoholic drinks mixed with normal soda drinks. There have been similar results in past studies but only this current study is generalizable to true-to-life events.
They had ten males and ten females ranging from ages 21 and 30 drink five various mixed cocktail drinks for five different times. The drinks include one regular soda, and vodka with different concentrations of either regular or diet carbonated drink. Three hours after the drinking sessions, the researchers would measure the participants' breath alcohol concentrations. The study concluded that drinks with diet soda equals higher breath alcohol concentrations.
And how high are these concentrations? Let's just say that for the same amount of alcohol, breathalyzers read that the alcohol concentration is about 22-25 percent higher in the breath of alcohol-and-diet-soda drinkers than that of the alcohol-and-regular-soda counterparts.
While there are no significant differences of the results between males and females, the study might be specifically relatable to women who are conscious of their calorie intake.
Dr Chris Rayner from the University of Adelaide, Australia said that this is due to gastric emptying. Alcohol enters the bloodstream quicker when alcohol is taken with a diet soda compared to taking it with regular sugary drinks. This does not mean that drinking alcohol-and-diet-soda drinks is "bad" though.
