The Real Dangers of Mixing Different Types of Alcohol
Beer before liquor, you've never been sicker. Liquor before beer, you're in the clear. These are arguably the best known phrases with regard to mixing different types of alcohol throughout your evening. But much is left to the imagination. This does not address the differences between varieties of alcohol, the combination of more than two drink types, and wine is left completely out of the equation.
The mistake that people often make is thinking that certain liquors or drinks affect someone differently or that mixing alcohols increases drunkenness. As seen above, different types of drinks can be equally potent. What matters is the alcohol content.
As alcohol accumulates faster than the body can process it, a person becomes drunk. On average, a person metabolizes, or processes, one drink per hour. Women, who generally have less muscle mass than men, are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol because muscle slows down the absorption process. Women also produce less of the enzyme dehydrogenase, which helps in breaking down alcohol.
Height, weight and body fat also affect blood alcohol content. Eating high protein foods, such as nuts, meat, pizza and cheese, can help to slow down the absorption of alcohol.
There seem to be a lot of assumptions when considering whether or not mixing types of alcohol will cause a worse hangover the next day..........
A few things are known, however.....
The mistake that people often make is thinking that certain liquors or drinks affect someone differently or that mixing alcohols increases drunkenness. As seen above, different types of drinks can be equally potent. What matters is the alcohol content.
As alcohol accumulates faster than the body can process it, a person becomes drunk. On average, a person metabolizes, or processes, one drink per hour. Women, who generally have less muscle mass than men, are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol because muscle slows down the absorption process. Women also produce less of the enzyme dehydrogenase, which helps in breaking down alcohol.
Height, weight and body fat also affect blood alcohol content. Eating high protein foods, such as nuts, meat, pizza and cheese, can help to slow down the absorption of alcohol.
There seem to be a lot of assumptions when considering whether or not mixing types of alcohol will cause a worse hangover the next day..........
A few things are known, however.....
- Mixing carbonated drinks with non-carbonated drinks can cause more problems due to the carbonation which tends to speed up the metabolism process.
- Hard liquor takes a bit longer to metabolize and break down as opposed to say a light beer. The harder spirits will be metabolized at the same speed at the light beer. Ouch! Our bodies require time to slowly adjust to the change needed to readjust to the new form of alcohol needing to be broken down and processed.
- When mixing drinks, many people tend to drink their drinks faster. This could cause hangovers simply due to the large amount of alcohol being consumed in shorter periods of time.
- In addition, if a person mixes enough drinks, they will most likely run into some with much higher levels of congeners, by-products of fermentation and additives to alcoholic beverages, found in the darker and/or cheaply made types of alcohol which cause worsened hangovers the next day.