# Could you live longer on booze and water than on just water? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 23, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565 "2006-03-23T07:28:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/41 "2006-03-24T08:40:58Z")
> [@](#): > > So mr. jp says alcohol isn’t a carbohydrate and Qadgop says that it is. You guys fight it out and tell us the result, will you? By alcohol I meant the specific alcohol, Ethanol: [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol): Ethanol has the formula C2H5OH. [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate) : Carbohydrates have the general formula Cn(H2O)n I agree with Eleusis, except for: > [@](#): > > A few months in, after that dude is dead, you’ll get scurvy and die. This seems a bit short given that Cecil says up to 2 years. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/42 "2006-03-24T10:59:10Z")
As an aside, wouldn’t the alcohol content keep the water germ free for longer? (Assuming there’s a big vat of water as opposed to a stream and no way of boiling the water when its been sitting around for a while) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/43 "2006-03-24T12:03:02Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Any clues on how long? How long could an average healthy person live on nothing but alcohol and water? Well, you probably wouldn’t be considered “healthy” for long, but my SIL lived on virtually nothing but vodka and ginger ale for a couple years. I’m talking maybe three or four mouthfuls of food in a day. And certainly not _every_ day. Not exactly the scenario you laid out, but it amazed us nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/44 "2006-03-24T12:10:23Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Any clues on how long? How long could an average healthy person live on nothing but alcohol and water? Well, you probably wouldn’t be considered “healthy” for long, but my SIL lived on virtually nothing but vodka and ginger ale for a couple years. I’m talking maybe three or four mouthfuls of food in a day. And certainly not _every_ day. Not exactly the scenario you laid out, but it amazed us nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/45 "2006-03-24T13:53:30Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > So **mr. jp** says alcohol isn’t a carbohydrate and **Qadgop** says that it is. You guys fight it out and tell us the result, will you? Well, I called it a “special case” of carbohydrates. Others consider it different enough from carbs to exclude it completely from that category. I got no beef with that, frankly. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/46 "2006-03-24T13:58:14Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Well, I called it a “special case” of carbohydrates. Others consider it different enough from carbs to exclude it completely from that category. I got no beef with that, frankly. Beef is not a carb 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/47 "2006-03-25T14:56:21Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Your friends hypothesis sounds insane on the face of it as processing Vodka > is mostly “empty” food calories, stresses the body to process it, and produces few if any useful nutrients. A quart of milk is far more nutritious. Please do not refer to the “nomilkman” as my 'friend." He is a total fanatic on the subject, claiming that every time anyone eats the slightest bit of dairy food, they are likely to keel over a die–You tasted glue that had casein in it 40 years ago and today you had a stroke. Obviously, the milk-based casein caused it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565.md?page=2)