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Today's Daily Health Tip
Skip the Diet Drink Mixers
by Beth Levine     Drinking alcohol can add lots of calories to your diet. But plenty of people want to enjoy a glass or two of a spirited beverage at the end of the day, especially if they are out for the evening. To compromise, many women especially will choose diet alcoholic drinks to keep the calorie count down. Unfortunately though, new research has found that this might be a recipe for inebriation since it appears that diet drinks can actually make the cocktails more potent.
The study, which took place at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, was based on the results of breathalyzer tests like those used to determine legal intoxication. The participants were eight men and eight women with an average age of 23. There were three separate trials with these same volunteers. In the first, they were provided drinks of vodka mixed with a citrus-flavored regular soda called Squirt. In the second meeting, they had vodka drinks mixed with diet Squirt, a calorie-free version of the same soda that uses aspartame as sweetener. In the final experiment, they were given cups of regular soda topped off with just a dash of alcohol to act as a placebo.
In all three experiments, the participants each consumed three to four beverages, equivalent in size to those served in a typical bar. Once the drinks were finished, the researchers tested the volunteers' breath alcohol levels eight times in a three-hour period. For all of the participants, the alcohol levels were at their highest 40 minutes after drinking. The difference between the average levels for drinkers of regular soda mixers was 18 percent, an amount that is considerable, particularly when looked at in context. The regular soda trial showed breath alcohol levels slightly below 0.077, which is the legal limit for operating a car. In contrast, after the diet soda mixer trial, the peak was 0.091: enough to earn a driver a DUI in all 50 states.
In addition, the breath alcohol levels were elevated throughout the three hours of testing when diet soda was the mixer. And this difference was evident when the participants were asked to complete a computer task. After drinking the diet alcoholic drinks, the subjects did not perform as well and responded more slowly than when they had drinks mixed with regular soda or the mostly non-alcoholic beverages. Scarily, when asked to self-evaluate, the volunteers said they felt the same and felt they performed the task just as well as they had in the other variations of the experiment.
Why would the presence of sugar in soda mixers make a difference? It may have to do with the extra calories slowing down the absorption of the alcohol in the body, much as eating a meal before or while drinking can do. It is never a good idea to drink on an empty stomach, as research has proven. For instance, a 1994 study in Swedish had subjects drink a few alcoholic beverages in the morning after fasting all night. On another day, they were asked to consume the same number of drinks after eating some breakfast. The blood alcohol levels of the volunteers were lower by a whopping 70 percent on the day that they had eaten.
There is also the health risk of drinking diet soda to consider, too. It has been linked with a higher risk of developing diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and having a stroke or heart attack. No form of soda is a healthy choice of drink, but the regular consumption of the artificially sweetened diet sodas is potentially hazardous and may even backfire and cause weight gain, according to a 2011 study at the University of Texas. (This might be something for legislators to think about as they now look to "guide" peoples' behavior into consuming diet soda over regular soda.)
While the present study is clearly not the best population sampling, with only 16 subjects, it does serve as a good reminder about only drinking alcohol in moderation. Quickly downing three to four drinks in a short time period, as these volunteers did, is not smart or healthy regardless of what mixer is used. We know that plenty of people in college or in their 20s will not always make the best choices, but keep in mind that the subjects all felt they were competent to complete computer tasks after their binge. And even though those who mixed their drinks with regular soda were technically below the legal limit, they were, nevertheless, perilously close to that limit. So, if you have had more than a drink or two, turn your keys over to a sober friend and enjoy your evening safely.
You may want to just skip diet soda altogether when you consider these dangers associated with it. |  LET'S CONNECT
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