Eating chips to "soak up" alcohol

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Michael, Apr 27, 2012.

  1. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    I had two interesting thought, one I forgot, which is unfortunate as I seem to remember thinking that one was actually quite interesting... nevertheless, I do recall the second which is this: Eating wedges/chips/french fries to "soak up" alcohol.

    Firstly: Is this even possible? I mean, yes, on an empty stomach you do get drunk quickly but - I don't know if the food "soaks it up". It's all getting pulverized into a juice anyway. There's nothing there to soak up anything.

    Second: Why buy a drink with alcohol just to soak up the alcohol?!?! Just buy non-alcoholic drinks or, better yet, drink a bit slower. It really doesn't make any sense to pay for alcohol just to "soak it up" with chips :bugeye:


    What the hell else was I thinking about?? Something to do with Indian chicks and cute eyes maybe? Grrrrrr......
     
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  3. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    Eating crackers to do that isn't going to help to much from getting drunk if you consume allot of alcohol. While eating when drinking does have some affect on how fast you get drunk it won't stop the inevitable from happening if you overindulge.
     
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  5. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    Before or after it enters the blood stream?


    It would probably be good for you to get a good understanding of the actual physiological cycle -
    Ingested
    Absorbed into blood stream
    oxidized by liver
    Etc.


    Then you could take something like - for example (I'm just talking out of my ass here) how changes in stomach contents vs. changes in current ratio of unabsorbed ethanol in stomach can be effected by changed parts per N vectored against time ..... or something like that. Just a wild guess.
     
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  7. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    People tend to develop a drinking pace. If you normally drink after a meal, your stomach is full of food so it will take the alcohol longer to get into your bloodstream. If one day you someone invites you to a bar during happy hour to discuss hiring you away from your current company at double your current salary, you'll suddenly find yourself drinking on an empty stomach. If you drink at your normal rate the alcohol will get into your blood a lot faster. Your drinking pace is a rather unconscious habit that you've spent years developing so you probably won't be able to slow down on this one occasion, especially since you're preoccupied with trying to get this great new job. Yet the worst thing you can do is get stinking drunk and make a fool of yourself.

    So you shove some food into your stomach. Something porous and absorbent like starch. It's not magic but it will surely soak up some of the alcohol for a little while and slow down the absorption a little bit.

    I prefer drinking after I've finished eating. I find that it goes to my head much faster if I drink before the meal. If I drink just one beer on an empty stomach, I wouldn't dare drive my car. Not even here in the USA where drunk driving is our national sport.

    An hour after a meal, no problem.
     
  8. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    I've also heard that drinking milk before you start drinking alcohol will also help you from getting drunk to fast, but it is really how much and how fast you consume alcohol not what you eat or drink that will be the determining factor.
     
  9. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Food slows alcohol absorption. Alcohol slows your metabolism.
     
  10. Hercules Rockefeller Beatings will continue until morale improves. Moderator

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    The contents of your stomach and small intestine will influence the rate at which alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream. However, alcohol metabolism has zero-order kinetics. In other words, once alcohol enters the bloodstream, it is metabolized at a fixed rate that is independent of the amount of alcohol you have consumed. So, “sobering up” remedies like hot coffee and cold showers do nothing to speed up the clearance of alcohol from the body.
     
  11. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    A matter of context

    This idea is a cultural mistake. In its proper context, yes, eating to soak up alcohol works. In its colloquial context, not so much.

    Most people think of soaking up alcohol as affecting intoxication. This doesn't work.

    But think of the hangover. Most people who vomit in response to excessive alcohol do so for one of two reasons. The more dangerous is alcohol poisoning, which can kill. Far more mundane is simple irritation of the stomach lining.

    Soaking up alcohol with food can reduce stomach irritation. It does nothing about general intoxication except, perhaps, by increasing blood glucose in the face of an ethanol onslaught.

    Chips, crisps, bread, and other starchy, plain foods work well for this. Pasta, popcorn, and so on.

    Most of what we do in order to alleviate alcoholic excess involves the after-effects. Drinking a lot of water doesn't prevent the spins when you go to bed. But, if you keep it down, it reduces your dehydration headache in the morning and, yes, helps reduce stomach irritation. Soaking up alcohol after you've started drinking will help in the morning, as well. But no, it doesn't do much about actual intoxication.
     
  12. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    True. But they can help manage the effects of the intoxication. The caffeine in coffee, tea or (in a lower concentration) cola is a powerful stimulant--probably the world's oldest and certainly the world's most popular. So it can partially counter some of the effects of the alcohol, particularly the depressive effects: drowsiness, inattention, sadness, slow reactions, etc. Use artificial sweetener because sugar can exacerbate the sleepiness if you're already nodding off.

    This won't make you a legal driver but it may allow you to avoid making a complete fool of yourself at a party on in a bar, and to take care of your domestic chores when you get home, such as making sure the dog went out and came back in, locking the doors, and taking your shoes off before crawling into bed.

    A cold shower will help keep you awake.

    This is why drinks like original-formula Red Bull were invented: You get all the intoxication from the alcohol, but the massive dose of caffeine keeps you awake, energetic, and more-or-less alert.

    Normally I recommend chocolate as a stimulant because it contains not only caffeine but theobromine, which is a slightly different and less edgy kind of stimulant. But chocolate concoctions are full of sugar and the caffeine concentration is rather low, so for this purpose they might do more harm than good.
     

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