(CBSNEWS) - Mixing alcohol with diet soda may cut down on calories, but it could be making you more drunk.
A new study, which is set to be published in the April edition of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research,
shows that people who drank with a diet mixer had a higher breath
alcohol content (BrAC) than people who mixed booze with non-diet
beverages.
Researchers had 16 subjects drink one of three
different beverages -- Squirt and alcohol, diet Squirt and alcohol and a
placebo beverage -- on three separate occasions until they had sampled
all the options. They then measured the BrAC using a breathalyzer and
asked subjects how drunk they felt, how tired they felt, whether they
felt impaired and if they felt they could drive. The subjects also
completed a reaction time task on a computer.
The diet drinkers averaged a peak BrAC level of 0.091 g/210 L,
which was 18 percent higher than the sugary mixer group, which averaged
0.077 g/210 L. Diet drinkers also had the worst performance in the
reaction time test.
However, subjects said they felt the same level of drunkness when drinking the diet or the regular mixture.
"One
of the key things we found was that even though (BrAC) peaked 18
percent higher in the diet condition, [participants] didn't feel any
more intoxicated and they didn't feel any different as to how willing
they were to drive a car," lead author Cecile Marczinski, an assistant
professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University in Highland
Heights, Ky., told TIME.
Marczinski
said to CBSNews.com in a separate interview that the BrAC is not to be
confused with the blood alcohol content level (BAC), though the two
different measures both look at how much alcohol is in a person's
system. BrAC's are used in some countries to determine how drunk a
person is. For example, driving with a BrAC of above 35 micrograms per
100 ml or a BAC of 80 mg per 100 ml is against the law in the United
Kingdom, according to the U.K.'s Department of Transport.
In
the U.S., police officers will administer a BrAC to a person they
believe is above the legal limit, and if they have a high level, take
them into the station to administer a blood test to confirm their BAC,
Marczinski said. The team opted to use BrAC for their study because it
was less invasive.
Researchers believe that because the stomach
processes sugary drinks like food items, a sugary mixer could delay the
stomach from emptying its contents. Digesting sugars allows the stomach
to hold alcohol longer and delay it from entering the bloodstream. Solid
food is known to lower BACs by as much as 20 to 57 percent, TIME
reported. However, the body doesn't know how to process diet sugars, so
it sends the alcohol out right away.
"Artificially sweetened alcohol mixers do not really
elevate alcohol intoxication," alcohol researcher Dr. Dennis L. Thombs,
professor and chair of behavioral and community health at UNT Health
Science Center in Forth Worth, Texas, explained in a press release.
"Rather, the lack of sugar simply allows the rate of alcohol absorption
to occur without hindrance," said Thombs, who was not involved in the
new study.
Experts warn that not eating before consuming alcohol
and then mixing with a diet drink may be a recipe for intense
intoxication.
"If you think you're doing a better thing by going
with the diet mixer, you need to know you may be doing yourself a
disservice if you're getting more drink faster," Samantha Heller, a
clinical nutritionist at the NYU Center for Musculoskeletal Care in New
York City who was not involved in the study, told HealthDay.
