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2016 11 28 04.25.18 1 %281%29
2016 11 28 04.25.18 1 %281%29
Lifestyle

This Trick Could Help You Drink All Night and Not Get Drunk

This article is written by a student writer from the Spoon University at UBC chapter.

I mean seriously, it sounds too good to be true. How can you not get drunk after drinking all night? The last time I did that, I woke up in a stranger’s house that I had met at the party that night. If I had known there were ways to not get drunk while injecting alcohol into my blood stream, my life would be a lot better by now. So keep on scrolling, because I’m about to share the biggest secret for the sake of humanity. 

Why do we get drunk in the first place?

Drunk beer alcohol
Rehmat Babbar

Ok, so you might think you are good with alcohol, and bluff to your friends about how you never get drunk after drinking something strong. But let’s be honest, people do get drunk, including yourself.

To summarize this article, alcohol increases the uptake of GABA and reduces the uptake of glutamate. In modern day English, alcohol basically reduces your judgement and makes you talk or behave however you want by interacting with your brain.

How to stay sober

Drunk candy cake
Rehmat Babbar

Here’s the fun part, according to Jim Koch, who is a co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company, the secret to being sober is yeast. Koch says that a teaspoon of yeast (with a teaspoon of yogurt for extra appetite) helps him to stay sober. Yeast, which contains alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) that helps break down alcohol will allow us to stay sober. 

Debunking Koch

Drunk beer
Rehmat Babbar

I was really happy while doing my research about this because I really thought Koch’s tip would help me to stay sober. But it turns out that this article disagrees with him.

After experimenting with the yeast tip from Koch, the researchers found out that yeast did not actually help to reduce participant’s blood alcohol levels. In fact, drinking water before drinking alcohol was shown to be more effective than eating yeast.

So what now?

Drunk beer wine
Rehmat Babbar

To be fair, Koch did say his method works out great for him, but not necessarily for everyone else. Eating yeast may work out for some, it may not work out for others. So try Koch’s method, drink more water as the participants did, or try other methods. But the best way not to get drunk is to never step over your limit. Learn to say no when you reach your limit because staying sober is always better than getting into trouble.

Single and ready to mingle....with food