On its website, ABC News (2/6, Vermani) reports that according to a study published in the journal Alcoholism, mixing alcoholic drinks with diet soda may result in a higher breath alcohol content than mixing drinks with regular, full-calorie soda. Participants in the study who consumed "the vodka-diet drink cocktails had a significantly higher breath alcohol content" than vodka-regular soda drinks, "and had the highest degree of behavioral impairment among the groups." The study's lead author explained, "Participants who drank diet soda with vodka had blood alcohol contents as high as 18 percent more than when sugar-containing mixers were used."
The CNN (2/6, Wade) "The Chart" blog points out that the study was very small, "only eight women and eight men," but the findings "closely match previous research linking diet drinks and increased alcohol levels in the body." Researchers explained the reason why people get more intoxicated drinking alcohol mixed with diet soda "has to do with digestion. The diet soda mixture passes quickly through the stomach, putting alcohol into our bloodstream faster." When the stomach encounters regular soda and liquor, it "treats this combination as if it's food," which delays the release of alcohol into the body, "spreading it out over a longer period of time."
HealthDay (2/6, Gordon) adds that "researchers didn't notice a difference between men and women in this study." The study's lead author said, however, that "women are more inclined to consume alcoholic beverages with diet soda." The American Beverage Association disagreed with the study's findings. In a statement released Tuesday, the association said, "This paper, which looks at only 16 people, does not show that mixing diet soft drinks with alcohol causes increased intoxication. Rather, it simply supports the long known fact that consuming calories - from any food or beverage - along with alcohol slows down its impact."
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