One trick could help slow the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream
A health expert has shared a simple trick that could help you avoid getting drunk too quickly and even lessen the severity of a hangover. Over the festive season, Brits are known to indulge in more alcohol than usual. While this can lead to health risks and the dreaded next-day hangover, there are ways to mitigate these effects.
With this in mind, NHS doctor Karan Rajan, who boasts over five million followers on social media platform TikTok, suggests eating before drinking to slow down the impact of alcohol. He was responding to another user’s post which claimed cheese could be the perfect pre-drinking snack.
That user had said: “If you are going for a night out on the town and you are going to drink alcohol, eating cheese before drinking alcohol can decrease your risk of having a hangover. This is because cheese has a lot of protein fat and complex carbs that can coat the stomach.”
Yet Dr Raj said it’s impossible to completely safeguard against the effects of drinking. He said: “Here’s a life lesson from a doctor: you can’t line your stomach or form a physical barrier before drinking alcohol to get less drunk because most of the alcohol is absorbed in your small intestine, but you can slow down digestion overall and GI transit time by consuming meals high in fats, protein and fibre and also slow down the rate of alcohol absorption.”
During an illustrative experiment using a balloon and pipe, he demonstrated how these nutrients prompt the stomach to release food more slowly into the small intestine. He elaborated: “This delays alcohol’s entry into the small intestine, which means it’s absorbed more gradually in the bloodstream. So you get less spikes in the blood alcohol concentration and you get drunk much slower.”
Dr Raj mentioned that this isn’t restricted to one type of food as any caloric intake prior to drinking can have a delaying effect. He clarified: “Essentially consuming calories with or before consuming alcohol delays gastric emptying and digestion overall. It’s also why drinking alcohol with zero calorie mixes gets you drunk faster than with full calorie mixers, the sugar and calories stimulate the release of digestive hormones like gastrin which slows down digestion.”
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To keep health risks from alcohol to a low level if you drink most weeks, the NHS recommends:
- Men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis
- Spread your drinking over three or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units a week
- If you want to cut down, try to have several drink-free days each week
Fourteen units is equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of lower-strength wine.
