Drinking: Full or Empty Stomach?

[Run n Spread]

After numerous nights out/celebrations of recent times I have been pondering this question. The conventional wisdom is that you should never drink on a full stomach and always have something to eat before hand. This helps absorb the alcohol.

However alcohol has to be processed by the liver and absorbed one way or another. All eating beforehand does is ensure the whole process takes longer and the buzz is lessened as the booze is released more intermittently into the bloodstream. (the amount drunk still needs to be processed). The hangovers are a killer also as the acetic acid (ethanol by product) and remnants of food are still been processed.

Drinking on empty however ensures the buzz hits you right away and you are drunk and chilled sooner. This also means the alcohol is processed sooner and the hangover is negligible.

I have found what works best for me is drinking on an empty stomach and if hungry have something light after a few drinks or eating afterward.

What do you all reckon?

 

[Messenger]

Depends on what you're aiming for.

If a good night is measured by how quickly you write yourself off, then don't eat.

 

[ioppolo]

I usually have a snack before drinking, then will have a few, have a meal, then proceed to get myself plastered.

 

[Gough]

Food and drink should have a symbiotic relationship.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

It all depends on your purpose, timeframe, and limits.

As you said, food (or for that matter water/non-alcoholics) will slow down the absorbtion process.

No food equals a fast drunk, fast recovery. Higher-risk, and usually results in over-indulgence. Drunkest point often <1 hour of last drink.

Pre-food equals a slow drunk, slow recovery. Drunkest point might be 2-3 hours after last drink. **Biggest reason for next morning DUI's**

Food alongside drinks (eg cocktail tapas) is the best way to manage your level of 'drunk'.

...

I'm old now, and struggle to actually drink enough to get "drunk" without food (I guess that makes me wiser?) - but have no issue drinking a bottle of wine with my meal, a few drinks before and after, and be comfortably tipsy for 4-5 hours without ever actually getting drunk.

 

[rayven]

It's going to be easy to pick those in this thread with behavioral issues while drinking. Especially if they name their poison.

Food and drink should have a symbiotic relationship.

and sex...

 

[Papa Juggs]

Food has no bearing on your blood alcohol concentration.

If you struggle to get drunk it means you abuse your liver too often because it's gotten very good at processing the alcohol.

 

[Dazb86]

Food has no bearing on your blood alcohol concentration.

If you struggle to get drunk it means you abuse your liver too often because it's gotten very good at processing the alcohol.

I've heard your body never actually gets an alcohol tolerance, you just get used to being smashed and can deal with it.

Never looked it up myself. It could be bullshit.

 

[Papa Juggs]

I've heard your body never actually gets an alcohol tolerance, you just get used to being smashed and can deal with it.

Never looked it up myself. It could be bullshit.

The actual concentration doesn't change just your ability to handle it so yeah.

 

[Hand]

I never drink on an empty stomach.

Well, I mean I did once, but waking up the next day in a puddle of my own vomit with a massive headache wasn't really what I had planned for.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I genuinely just think drinking has no hard and fast rules. Everyone says different things work for them. It's like how a hair of the dog fixes some people up, but it just makes my bile smell like beer. I dunno, I just tend to get to a good level and hangover-less if I'm home by 12:30ish. But when I punch on, I'll get a hangover no matter the way I went about it.

 

[wally funk]

Depends on what you're aiming for.

If a good night is measured by how quickly you write yourself off, then don't eat.

I shudder to think how many people there are out there who go out with the express purpose of getting totally wasted as quickly as possible. I fear the number's a lot higher than I think.

 

[AGC]

Eating is cheating

 

[Cruyff14]

I genuinely just think drinking has no hard and fast rules. Everyone says different things work for them. It's like how a hair of the dog fixes some people up, but it just makes my bile smell like beer. I dunno, I just tend to get to a good level and hangover-less if I'm home by 12:30ish. But when I punch on, I'll get a hangover no matter the way I went about it.

If you want to avoid a hangover, stay drunk.

---

I always make sure I have eaten if I know I am going to have a big night.

 

[Papa Juggs]

Green salad + fruit juice.

 

[Plugger35]

Eating is cheating.

That policy usually results in you ending up shitfaced and face down in the gutter by 10pm though.

Best to eat a bit before but not too much that you're too full to binge drink.

Kebab then inhaled at the end of a long night.

 

[Scotland]

I've been drunk off full and empty stomachs many times, but when I don't eat not only do I get drunk quickly I tend to have memory blanks. Drinking on a full stomach I'll still say/do the same stupid stuff, I'll just remember saying/doing it the next day.

 

[Plugger35]

I've been drunk off full and empty stomachs many times, but when I don't eat not only do I get drunk quickly I tend to have memory blanks. Drinking on a full stomach I'll still say/do the same stupid stuff, I'll just remember saying/doing it the next day.

Sometimes it's best not to remember.

 

[Scotland]

Sometimes it's best not to remember.

Agreed.

I hate those awkward conversations when someone 'reminds' you of something you have no recollection of and your mind immediately jumps to what else you may have forgotten.

 

[Plugger35]

Agreed.

I hate those awkward conversations when someone 'reminds' you of something you have no recollection of and your mind immediately jumps to what else you may have forgotten.

Yeah more sober people often fill in the blanks the next day about your embarrassing drunken exploits which brings back bad flashbacks you could do without.

 

[Sanders]

Always eat

Only a moron thinks its clever to have an empty stomach

 

[Silent Alarm]

With the amount of "what do I do?" drinking threads on here, I'm starting to lose faith in Australia's drinking culture.

 

[Tulip]

I eat something light, but I haven't been truly hammered in months and I miss it so I'm going to stop doing that.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

and sex...

 

[A Swallow]

I generally try to eat something, but nothing major. Having said that I should not be giving advice on pre-drinking routines, because on Saturday night I got so pissed I can't remember about 4 hours in a nightclub and woke up on the lounge-room floor as apparently I'd pissed my bed. I also found my keys and phone on my bedside table, but instead of my wallet there was a lemon. Yes, the fruit. Just a lemon sitting there next to my piss-soaked bed. What on earth went on I will never know.
But yes, eat something at least.