What kind of drink do you mix with your vodka, whiskey, rum on a night out?
New research has revealed that, although diet mixers are popular with people watching their waistlines, they can make you more drunk than their sugary alternatives.
Scientists have also warned that women are more at risk as they are likely to order diet mixers to save on calories.
In the study, men and women were given vodka mixed with either a soft drink or its sugar-free option. They became intoxicated more quickly on the diet option.
Notably, the vodka with diet lemonade, but not the one with the normal mixer, took them over the drink-driving limit.
But despite this, they did not feel any more drunk and were just as likely to get behind the wheel.
In one of the first studies of its kind, the US research team said it is important women were made aware of the effect.
Northern Kentucky University researcher Cecile Marczinski said: “Alcohol measured with diet mixer results in higher breath alcohol concentration as compared to the same amount of alcohol consumed with a sugar-sweetened mixer.
“The subjects were unaware of this difference, as measured by various subjective ratings, including feelings of intoxication, impairment and willingness to drive.”
The reason? It is thought that sugary drinks, like food, slow the passage of alcohol into the bloodstream.
However, the sweeteners found in diet drinks do nothing to dull the effect of the drink.
And, writing in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, the scientists again warned that women are at particular risk of the phenomenon, not only because their biology means they drunk more quickly than men but because they are more likely to order diet mixers.
