Mix Carefully.

Researchers Confirm UNT Professor's Findings: Mixed Drinks With Diet Soda Get You Drunker.

In October of 2011, Dennis L. Thombs, PhD, of the University of North Texas Health Science Center published his findings from 413 random nightlife field tests regarding alcohol consumption.

What he found was pretty significant: Those who drank alcoholic beverages mixed with diet sodas got significantly drunker than those who ordered mixed drinks with more traditional, non-diet forms of the same beverages.

It wasn't an insignificant discovery then, but, just this week, Thombs' findings became substantially more significant: A Northern Kentucky University study published in the Alcoholism: Clinical & and Experimental Research journal yesterday confirms Thombs' findings and actually quantifies the increase in inebriation. According to this new NKU research, those who drink diet soda mixed alcoholic drinks will have, on average, a full 18 percent higher blood alcohol content level than those who drink non-diet mixed drinks.

In other words: Drinking a whiskey and diet will get you far drunker than drinking a whiskey and Coke will.

The biology behind behind all this? Here's what NKU proposes: Unnatural sweeteners lack the substance of natural ones and are less likely to be fully processed in one's stomach like regular food; thus, when one drinks an alcoholic beverage without natural sweeteners, the whole drink gets rushed through the stomach and the alcohol is more quickly passed on through to one's bloodstream.

Says NKU researcher Cecile A. Marczinski of these findings: “Just as we've known for a long time that eating food with alcohol slows your body's absorption of alcohol, sugary drinks also appear to keep alcohol in the stomach longer, which is a good thing.”

Obviously, Marczinski's looking out for everyone's health when she says that. Given that we're more concerned with our wallet, though, here's our suggestion: WHISKEY AND DIETS FOR ALL!

Just, y'know, drink responsibly and be careful and whatnot.