Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Getting drunk on Red Bull and vodka
Heymatt: My friend drinks Red Bull and vodka. He says he doesn’t get drunk that way. How does that happen?
— Norma, via email
Well, it doesn’t happen. He just thinks it happens. Energy drinks don’t change how our bodies metabolize alcohol or reduce blood-alcohol levels, but they can make us believe we’re not as looped as we are. The primary actors in “energy” drinks are sugars and caffeine and/or caffeine act-alikes (taurine, guarine). The only real energy our bodies get comes from the sugars. (Fats also supply energy, but the drinks don’t contain fat.) We can’t get true energy from caffeine. All that does is perk us up mentally, give us some muscle endurance, and reduce the sensation of being tired. It reacts with our central nervous systems; we don’t extract body energy from the caffeine. It buzzes us by blocking the chemicals that make us feel tired and that induce sleep. Not that we no longer need sleep. We just don’t feel the sensation of sleepiness. Thus the post-energy-drink crash. Caffeine also mimics the effects of adrenaline and makes our hearts pump harder.
Researchers believe that a lot of the “sobering” effects of energy drinks are really a placebo effect. We expect not to feel drunk, therefore we don’t. But in a European study of the effects of energy drinks on driving skills, they found that the drink provided some slight improvement. Less weaving and shoulder driving. But beware. The study was very small, hasn’t been replicated, and shouldn’t be used as an excuse to drink and drive, sez the MA squad of lawyers. Individuals react differently to caffeine and alcohol. If you’re pulled over and eventually take an alcohol test, you’ll show up officially drunk, no matter how perky you feel.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Getting drunk on Red Bull and vodka
Getting drunk on Red Bull and vodka
Heymatt: My friend drinks Red Bull and vodka. He says he doesn’t get drunk that way. How does that happen?
— Norma, via email
Well, it doesn’t happen. He just thinks it happens. Energy drinks don’t change how our bodies metabolize alcohol or reduce blood-alcohol levels, but they can make us believe we’re not as looped as we are. The primary actors in “energy” drinks are sugars and caffeine and/or caffeine act-alikes (taurine, guarine). The only real energy our bodies get comes from the sugars. (Fats also supply energy, but the drinks don’t contain fat.) We can’t get true energy from caffeine. All that does is perk us up mentally, give us some muscle endurance, and reduce the sensation of being tired. It reacts with our central nervous systems; we don’t extract body energy from the caffeine. It buzzes us by blocking the chemicals that make us feel tired and that induce sleep. Not that we no longer need sleep. We just don’t feel the sensation of sleepiness. Thus the post-energy-drink crash. Caffeine also mimics the effects of adrenaline and makes our hearts pump harder.
Researchers believe that a lot of the “sobering” effects of energy drinks are really a placebo effect. We expect not to feel drunk, therefore we don’t. But in a European study of the effects of energy drinks on driving skills, they found that the drink provided some slight improvement. Less weaving and shoulder driving. But beware. The study was very small, hasn’t been replicated, and shouldn’t be used as an excuse to drink and drive, sez the MA squad of lawyers. Individuals react differently to caffeine and alcohol. If you’re pulled over and eventually take an alcohol test, you’ll show up officially drunk, no matter how perky you feel.
Comments