Mixing Alcohol with Diet Beverages Can Lead to Higher BAC DWI?

Don't Blame it on the alcohol baby,,, from bartending-school.com

"I knew it wasn't the Jack but the (diet) coke that got me."

Jack Daniels or his brother Jim Beam both go well with coke but does it matter if you mix them with diet coke or regular coke?

A new study was just released that showed that those that mixed their alcohol with diet drinks had a higher BAC (blood alcohol concentration) sooner than those that mixed with a sugar drink.

Why? Because sugar slows down the absorption of the alcohol. The alcohol will stay with you longer. This is not always a good thing. I remember a bad birthday with Jack and Coke and hugging the toilet bowl, my loving room mates took pictures. That was my last mix, I swore off adding sugar with alcohol.

Sugar takes longer to digest so the alcohol rises in your blood stream more slowly. A slow rise of your BAC. see article here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130205162524.htm

But diet drinks have NO sugar and nothing to hold back the fast rush of alcohol into the bloodstream. Sometimes in defense of a DWI we argue what the BAC was at the time of driving not at the time of breath or blood testing. Remember it is driving WHILE intoxicated.

Diet Coke, my wife's favorite, from elitedaily.com

I believe that all this creates a double whammy of sorts for women drinkers for two reasons:

1. They will likely have a higher BAC with the same amount of alcohol as the same weight man. They have a higher fat composition to muscle based upon genetics, higher water weight = higher concentration of alcohol.

2. Women tend to drink more diet drinks than guys.

On top of all of that if they are going through their monthly cycle their BAC may also be affected by that as well. Higher body temperatures yield higher BACs with breath testing, even by a few degrees.

Just another thing to consider when we look at and investigate New York DWI defenses.

Lawrence Newman, D.C., J.D.

Doctor of Chiropractic
Attorney and Counselor at Law
607-229-5184

http://www.ithacadwi.com