Knowing How to Drink Will Cause Less Intoxication

Relieve Thirst and Hunger First -

It is easy to over drink when you mistake thirst and hunger in the evening as “thirst for alcohol.” Any food tastes good in a state of hunger. So is the “taste of the first glass.” Before you pour alcohol into an empty stomach and shout “My body wants alcohol today,” have a meal and drink water first.

How much alcohol should one drink for it to not become poison to the body? Doctors advise a daily dose of less than 50g regardless of a person’s drinking ability. If you drink three to five glasses of alcohol in a glass fit for the particular type of alcohol, you would be drinking approximately 50g. Such an amount will not greatly harm the body.

Drinking slowly is also important. The body’s ability to dissolve alcohol per hour is limited. Drinking too much alcohol at once will cause more alcohol to be absorbed than is dissolved. If so, one’s alcohol level will rise suddenly and cause intoxication in a short period of time.

Is Overdrinking Okay if I Have a Lot of Appetizers? -

Some people advise others to eat greasy food such as pork before drinking, saying, “Fat slows down the stomach’s ability to absorb alcohol.” However there are no safety devices in alcohol. Greasy garnishes will only lead to abdominal obesity.

You have to each a lot of garnishes in order to help the liver’s activities in dissolving alcohol. High-protein, high-fat food lingers in the stomach, delaying the absorption of alcohol. However, since it is absorbed directly in the stomach without dissolving, there are little results.

No matter how many side dishes you have, the body absorbs most of the alcohol one drinks within 30 minutes. Eating garnishes will not delay the absorption of alcohol, it will only decrease the number of times you hold up the glass to drink.

Avoid salty garnishes. They will cause thirst and make you drink even more. Hot garnishes give more stress to an already stressed-out stomach. Non-greasy meat and fiber-rich vegetables are the best snacks to go with alcohol.

Mixing Drinks is a Regrettable Act –

If you want to drink without having hangovers, stick to one type of alcohol. “Bomb alcohol” is the worst choice, because the carbon dioxide in the beer accelerates the body’s absorption of the soju or whiskey that is dropped in the beer glass as the “core of the bomb.” The liver’s ability to dissolve alcohol soon extends its limit as well.

Mixing drinks will cause headaches long after alcohol is completely dissolved. Hangovers are caused by additives that enhance the color and smell of alcohol. The mixture of various additives leads to several chemical reactions, making headaches even worse.

Will Singing and Vomiting Quicken Recovery from Drunkenness? -

There are no special ways to recover from a hangover. Alcohol will only be dissolved with time. Some foods are claimed to accelerate the dissolving of alcohol, but doctors warn against trusting what uncertain effects they may have, and continuing to drink excessively because of this.

You do not have refrain from wanting to throw up. However, since alcohol is quickly absorbed, most of the substance let out will be the food you ate. Waking up from a state of intoxication after vomiting is only a psychological effect. Forcing yourself to vomit in order to wake up will tear the blood vessels between the esophagus and stomach or make stomach acid come up, leading to esophagitis.

Singing and dancing can help discharge alcohol from the body through respiration and sweat. However their greater merit is in the fact that less alcohol is drunk while doing so.

(Advice: Dr. Kim Gyeong-hwan of Yonsei University Medical School’s Pharmacology Class, Dr. Kim Won-ho of Severance Hospital’s Department of Internal Medicine, Dr. Namgoong Gi of Yongdong Severance Hospital’s Department of Neuropsychiatry, and Dr. Lee Jung-kwon of Samsung Medical Center’s Department of Family Medicine.)

TK Sohn sohn@donga.com