Does anyone know if the old addage in the subject line is actually true (been tested by experimentation)? If it is true, how come? What’s really happening there? Sorry if this has been asked before; I had trouble searching the boards. Thanks,
Friday13
Depends on the person really. I can drink liqour and beer interchanageably throught the night and it doens’t hurt me.
The theory behind the addage is: If you drink beer then liquor you get sick because your body can’t judge the effects of the liqour because of the intoxication of the beer. When you drink liqour then beer, you don’t get as sick because the beer fills up your stomach before you get too drunk.
Agian it doens’t apply to everybody, some people live by it.
Welcome to the boards
etgaw1
Hmm, I always thought it was “Whiskey before beer never fear, but beer before whiskey might be risky”. Either way the principle is the same. Common wisdom has it that drinking beer before hard liquor brings about inebriation much faster than the other way around. A doctor told me that carbonation in the beer opens the pyloric valve and thus speeds the absorption of alcohol which is subsequently consumed. I haven’t found independent verification for this theory though.
I have found that saying to be true. I think it was the third time around that I noticed the pattern to destruction - beer, then rum, and possibly a little tequila later in the evening ends with bad results for me. It ends the same whether I had the tequila or not though. If I drink beer I am fine, drink liquor and I am fine. My problem is that if I go down to the bar for a few and start with beer I will usually get bored with it and then switch to rum, which I prefer.
I don’t think I have ever tried reversing it and starting with the liquor and then going to beer though. Hmmm, new experiment for the weekend? Actually I rarely drink anymore anyway, and when I do it doesn’t often end with me being drunk.
I did some googling to see what I could find elsewhere on the topic. There is no cut and dry answer out there that I could find, but I did find the following information that tends to suggest that switching drinks isn’t really the problem when you get a hangover. You’ve just had too much to drink. The absorption rates of different types of alcoholic beverages are different. When someone switches drinks, the switch in absorption rates but not drinking rates might cause someone to drink more than they imagined they could handle without becoming sick. See all of the fun reading below about absorption rates and the pyloric valve. I couldn’t have found any of this without your tips. Thanks!
Friday13
From http://goodmedicine.ninemsn.com.au/goodmedicine/Factsheets/db/general/drugs/1173.asp
MIXING YOUR DRINKS MAKES YOU MORE INTOXICATED — FALSE
That’s false, but it could make you sick. All drinks contain different levels of alcohol and it’s alcohol that makes you drunk. Whether it’s the 5.5 percent in a cooler or the 30 percent in a glass of liqueur, it’s how much alcohol, not what type.
MYTH 5: HANGOVERS ARE CAUSED BY SWITCHING DRINKS.
Hangovers are caused by the amount and the rate, not by the kind of alcohol consumed. While metabolizing alcohol, the liver cannot perform its usual functions, one of which is keeping the blood sugar at normal concentration. The result of this is a state called hypoglycemia, or lower than necessary blood sugar. Symptoms of hypoglycemia are hunger, weakness, nervousness, sweating, headache, and tremor. The change in blood vessels, as mentioned in Myth 3 above, can causes headaches. Lastly, a hangover is actually a "mini -withdraw., When the central nervous system is released from the depressed state, the opposite state develops-feeling edgy and irritable. This effect is known as “rebound.”
the higher the concentration of alcohol, the faster it is absorbed by your digestive tract. As a general rule, beer and wine rare absorbed more slowly than distilled beverages.
carbonated alcoholic beverages are absorbed more rapidly than those with out carbonation because the carbonation relaxes the pyloric valve and allows more of the alcohol to pass on to the small intestine where it is more rapidly absorbed.
the more alcohol you consume the longer absorption takes
if alcohol builds up in the stomach it may become irritated and completely close the pyloric valve. if this irritation continues vomiting may result.
Wow, someone who actually uses given information to research his own question, and then posts back to share his findings… Welcome to the boards, Friday13!
I think it has more to do with the zero order pharmacokinetics of alcohol.
You know that “one drink” that tips you over the edge? That’s true.
Now, because beer is only about 7% ABV, and whisky is about 40% ABV, you’re more likely to have that “one drink” too many if it’s a shot of whisky than a bottle of beer.
A pint of beer has 2 units of alcohol in it, a 35ml measure of whisky has 1. If it takes your liver 1 hour to de-toxify a unit, and you drink a pint in 30 mins, and a shot of whisky in 5 seconds, you can see where the problem might lie.
That is, if you drink beer slowly, you KNOW how drunk you are, but you’ll have drunk your whisky fast, and it will tip you over the edge before you know what’s hit you.
Conversely, if you drink whisky first, and then move onto beer, you’ll be able to stop drinking your pint before you get to that point.
As for hangovers, congeners seem to have an effect.
http://www.snapoo.com/over/clinic/congeners.html
7% beer Irish Girl. I want some.
I’ve found that those who start on spirits, if they last the first hour, then tend to get a pint and just sit there for the rest of the evening nursing the thing. (binge drinkers et al)
Those that start on pints, towards the end of the evening, if they start on shots, go stupid, and drink far more in total.
chillihead
This all depends on taking your distilled spirits straight, right? A tall mixed drink, one shot, would probably come in pretty close (in concentration) to a beer.
Peace,
mangeorge
My understanding of the theory is that it has to do with not adjusting your drinking speed (in volume/hour) when you change what you’re drinking. The theory is that at the beginning of the evening you calibrate your speed in volume units, and don’t change it even when you should.
When you start drinking whiskey at the same speed you’ve been drinking beer, you get much more alcohol than you meant to, and bad things happen.
Conversely, if you’ve been doing judiciously spaced shots of whiskey, then pick up a beer, you’re likely to drink the beer fairly slowly, thereby preserving your internal organs from excessive fun-juice.
An additional effect could be that if you start drinking shots right away, you’re sober enough to set a judicious pace, while after a few beers, you’re ready to throw caution to the winds and buy the super-express ticket to three shots at once tequila heaven.
So, “liquor before beer, never fear; beer before liquor, never sicker”
Not that I’d know or anything.
My own motto goes “If you’re going to bike 20 minutes to a party, drink water instead of just beer to quench your thirst, or Bad Things will happen.” We don’t likes the Bad Things, no we don’t.