The Glade 4.0

I suppose it's also possible that a full stomach makes you drink more slowly. It's hardly a scientific study, but just an observation that I feel the effects of the same volume more acutely.

That's probably true, especially with drinks like beer that make you feel more full.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Eating a lot of food slows the absorption of the alcohol, not the metabolism. So your BAC doesn't rise as high, but there is measurable alcohol content in your blood for far longer. That's why you can eat a lot and still have an elevated BAC the next morning.

My main point is a 0.08% level is simply far too low to be dispensing out harsh punishments. It's very easy for someone to hit that without realizing it and the impairment at that level for most people is not that severe. Sure, you can still cause a crash, but you can cause a crash by talking on your cell phone or not having enough sleep, and no one would suggest a permanent license revocation for either of those. If someone gets caught with something like 0.2% then sure take his license away forever, he obviously didn't care. But if you revoke licenses for 0.08 you might as well take everyone's, because the vast majority is guilty of that.

While alcohol can be absorbed by the stomach, where you have an empty stomach, over 80% of the absorption occurs in the small intestine. When food is in the stomach, the pyloric valve that regulates flow from the stomach to the intestine closes to hold the food inside for digestion, which also hold the alcohol in where it is less readily absorbed.

Because of this delay in the majority of the alcohol getting to the small intestine, it delays the effects of the alcohol, which does have a minor impact (10% reduction) in your peak concentration, but the overall effect is very small, and drinking 5 beers with our without dinner will result in the same level of intoxication, as far as legal limits are concerned. Having an extra drink because you ate so it won't affect you is a myth, and will likely result in your being more drunk due to the higher drink count.

I think the issue comes in with how much are you drinking in total.

If you have 2 beers in 30 min on an empty stomach, you'll probably be impaired because it's being processed into the blood stream pretty quickly. However, if you have 2 beers with a meal, the absorbtion rate is slower, which gives your kidneys more time to process it on top of the slower absorbtion rate.

However, if you have 5-6 beers in an hour or two, the fact that you ate isn't really going to be a huge factor in how drunk you get.

Maybe, maybe not. Body weight is a big factor there. It also depends on what you mean by impaired. 2 Beers in 30 minutes might put my wife over the limit, but it won't put me over it... although frankly if you're drinking that fast you're wasting money on **** beer to begin with.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

True, body weight also factors in. As does the strength of the beer your drinking, etc. And amen on the drinking that fast. Life it too short to waste on shitty beer.

I've never DUI because I don't drink. :p

^^^

_________________