Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach

It’s common knowledge that drinking on an empty stomach is a bad idea – but it‘s a common practice. Sometimes, people simply forget to eat before having a drink, but sometimes, people do it deliberately to get drunk faster.

You get more drunk quickly when you drink on an empty stomach because of the way you absorb alcohol. Alcohol is primarily absorbed in the small intestine. When you drink, a minimal amount of alcohol is absorbed through the mouth before it moves to the stomach, where about 20% enters your bloodstream. Alcohol needs to move into the small intestine before you will feel the full effects – about 75-80% of absorption happens there. Once in your bloodstream, it moves to your brain in 5-10 minutes.

Food in your stomach will slow this process down, and drinking on an empty stomach will speed this up considerably. This is dangerous – not just because of how quickly it will affect you but also because this can cause the effects of alcohol to be amplified.

Why it’s dangerous

Increased risk of alcohol poisoning

Drinking on an empty stomach can cause you to overconsume alcohol.

A blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.3-0.4%t is the level where you can expect to experience alcohol poisoning, and over 0.4% can be fatal.

Eating before drinking does not eliminate the risk of alcohol poisoning – but drinking on an empty stomach means you can get to a high BAC much faster.

The body processes alcohol more slowly than you can drink it – at a rate of about one drink per hour. This is a standard drink, which can be less alcohol than you realise – a small glass of wine or a bottle of beer.

If you introduce alcohol to an empty stomach, your BAC will rise very quickly – and if you drink a lot in a short period, this can soon become dangerous.

This risk increases if you’re smaller—a 100-lb person can easily hit a BAC of 0.3% by consuming six drinks in an hour – and that’s with a full stomach.

A high BAC will also severely impair your judgement and motor skills, and you will be at an increased risk of accident and injury.

Irritation of the stomach

During a hangover, you will often feel nauseous because alcohol has irritated the lining of the stomach. When you drink without food to protect your stomach, this can be more pronounced and lead to vomiting.

Dehydration

Dehydration is one of the most common alcohol symptoms. Dehydration from drinking on an empty stomach can feel highly unpleasant and, in severe cases, can be dangerous. When you drink on an empty stomach, there is no food to help you retain water, and the diuretic effects of alcohol happen much more quickly, causing you to lose body fluids. If you vomit from drinking, which you’re at increased risk for when drinking on an empty stomach, this can lead to dehydration.

Losing body fluids rapidly leads to an electrolyte imbalance, as electrolytes are lost from the system with the fluids. Electrolytes are essential minerals in the body that help us perform basic functions—minerals like potassium, magnesium, and sodium. Low electrolytes can cause a range of problems, like muscle weakness and difficulty regulating your heart rate.

Drinking water will not help you rebalance your electrolytes—water contains no essential minerals. Overdrinking water, when severely depleted in electrolytes, can actually be dangerous and cause you to become even more imbalanced. Eating electrolyte-rich foods when in this state will probably be the last thing on your mind, but sipping a sports drink or other fluids rich in electrolytes, like coconut water, will help you replenish them.

Hypoglycemia

When you drink, your liver focuses on processing the alcohol in your system and not maintaining your blood sugar. If you’re drinking on an empty stomach, your blood sugar will already be low – and this increases the risk of hypoglycemia. This is particularly dangerous if you have diabetes.

Many of the symptoms of hypoglycemia, like drowsiness, slurred speech, confusion and nausea, mimic alcohol effects, so it can be hard to tell if you’re intoxicated or hypoglycemic. Hypoglycemia from drinking is rare in people who don’t have diabetes, but it can happen, especially if you’re drinking on an empty stomach.

What to watch out for

If you or a friend have consumed alcohol on an empty stomach, you will need to be extra vigilant for the effects of alcohol poisoning, as it can happen much faster. Symptoms of alcohol poisoning include:

• Confusion
• Unconsciousness, or difficulty maintaining consciousness
• Vomiting
• Seizures
• Slow/irregular breathing
• Low heart rate
• Clammy, pale or blue skin
• Low body temperature

If this happens, get help immediately – do not attempt to sober the person up by making them drink coffee or putting them in the shower. Sit them upright on the ground to prevent them from injuring themselves or choking, or put them in the recovery position if they’re unconscious – and call an ambulance. Stay with them until the ambulance arrives – do not leave them alone.

Regularly drinking on an empty stomach

Regularly drinking on an empty stomach can be one of the symptoms of alcohol abuse – or indicative of another condition.

Heavy drinking without eating regularly to maximise the effects of alcohol can indicate that you’re prioritising alcohol over your health, which is a symptom of alcohol addiction. It can also suggest that your tolerance is high from overconsuming alcohol over a long period.

Regularly drinking without eating can cause you to be chronically depleted in electrolytes and accelerate alcoholic gastritis. This is when your stomach lining is damaged and inflamed from chronic drinking, which can lead to anaemia, ulcers and stomach tumours.

If you find that you’re restricting calories from food in favour of calories obtained from alcohol, this can indicate an eating disorder. Skipping meals so you can drink is colloquially known as ‘drunkorexia.’ Chronically undereating and overdrinking can be damaging to the body and can worsen eating disorders over time.

If you’re getting a high proportion of your calories from alcohol, this can lead to malnutrition. Alcohol is an inefficient source of nutrition. It is calorically dense – a gram of protein and a gram of carbohydrate both contain four calories, while a gram of alcohol contains 7.However, alcohol isn’t nutritious – it’s a poor source of fuel for the body, and you will be missing out on most of the things you need from your diet to remain healthy. It contains no vitamins, minerals, fats, protein or carbohydrates. Carbohydrates may be present in alcoholic drinks depending on what they are – wine, beer and sugary mixers all contain carbohydrates – but unflavoured spirits like vodka or whisky only contain alcohol. Over time, prioritising alcohol over food will lead to malnutrition and deteriorating health – both from not getting enough nutrients from your diet and from the organ damage that prolonged alcohol abuse causes, which can impair your ability to absorb nutrients from food.

If you regularly drink on an empty stomach and you’re worried about how it’s affecting your health, contact us today to find out how we can help.