After the sandiegojs meetup last night, I went out with a few of the attendees for beers down the road, curious to see how my body would react to alcohol after not eating for 72 hours.
Turns out it’s no big deal. I had expected the old adage regarding eating food before drinking to mean that I would get dangerously trashed after one beer since there is almost literally nothing in my digestive system at all. I had two and a half ShockTop beers and after a couple hours at the bar I felt surprisingly normal and confirmed this by blowing a .06 on a personal breathalyzer*
I felt fine in the morning, if not better than I did the previous morning. I don’t know if that’s due to a shift in how my body is producing glucose, or if it’s the 350 calories and 40 grams of carbohydrates consumed the night before. It’s amazing how easy it is to disregard the nutritional values of beverages. 2.5 beers tripled my calorie consumption over the previous 72 hours.
So, as far as I’m concerned, eating before drinking is irrelevant. Since I generally want food after a few beers regardless, I’m going to wait to grab something until I’ve had a couple drinks from now on.
*Yes, I have a personal breathalyzer. It’s handy for experiments and settling arguments about who can drive!