Diet Drinks May Increase Breath Alcohol Levels

What can affect the amount of alcohol on your breath?

FOX’s Alex Hein:

This is, Housecall for Health…

People who mix alcohol and diet drinks end up with more alcohol on their breath.

In a new study, people who drank vodka mixed with diet soda had higher alcohol concentrations on their breath through three hours than those who drank the same amount of vodka mixed with regular soda.

For the study, ten men and ten women between the ages of 21 and 30 drank five different mixed beverage combinations over five sessions. The drinks containing varying amounts of vodka and either diet or regular soda.

The study does not necessarily mean that you’ll be drunker if you mix your alcohol with diet soda, but an earlier study showed alcohol enters the bloodstream faster when mixed with diet drinks… compared to sugared mixers.

The results also did not differ between genders, but researchers said they should be relevant to young women who are most likely to use diet beverages in their mixed drinks.

Researchers at Drug and Alcohol Dependence say prevention materials should include this information so people know that by trying to avoid some extra calories in a mixed drink, they risk having higher breath alcohol concentrations.

For more on this story, check foxnewshealth.com.

Housecall for Health, I’m Alex Hein, FOX News.