- You might like to have a coffee after a few alcoholic drinks to sober yourself up.
- But according to a professor of addiction science, this won't work.
- In fact, he said the only way to reduce the effects of alcohol is to wait it out.
It's nice to have a coffee after a meal out, especially if you've had a few glasses of wine. But although it may feel like the caffeine perks you up, it might not have any impact on how sober you are.
In the Channel 4 program Food Unwrapped, Tony Moss, a professor of addictive behaviour science at London South Bank University, said coffee does not help decrease blood alcohol levels. This means functions affected by drinking such as hand-eye coordination and reaction time will still be hindered — even though you might feel more alert from the caffeine.
Moss recruited five students to drink a vodka and tonic, which was the right measure for their size to make them feel the effects of the alcohol. Then, they were told to complete a test of guiding a metal hoop around a wire without them touching, to see how their hand-eye coordination was faring.
They all failed the test. And they failed again after drinking a cup of coffee. Breathalyser tests showed their alcohol levels had not been impacted by the coffee either.
The only way to actually sober up, Moss said, is to wait it out.
"We know from wider research that coffee isn't an antidote to alcohol," he said. "Taking coffee is a stimulant that will reverse that feeling of being slightly tired as your blood alcohol is coming down. The only thing that's going to sober you up in that respect is a bit of time."
The experiment was very small, and it was only used as a demonstration for how coffee doesn't help us sober up. But the theory is supported by the surrounding knowledge of how alcohol is synthesised by the body.
For instance, it takes around three hours for your body to break down the units of alcohol in a large glass or wine or pint of beer. Depending on the amount of alcohol in your system, it can still be in your body the next day — which is why people can be pulled over for drunk driving when they are hungover.
Research has shown how coffee is good for our health in a number of ways. But if you've been using it as a sobering up elixir, you might want to rethink your methods.
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