Should you mix alcohol with fruit juice?

Answer:

Mixing alcohol with fresh fruit with clear origins such as plums, apples and grapes does not only go well together, but also decreases the alcohol content. For example, oranges can be mixed with gin, vodka, etc. This is a popular mixing technique in Western countries.

In Vietnam, alcohol can be soaked in different types of fruits such as apples, apricots, wild bananas, plums and more to make it taste better and have a moderate level of alcohol content.

However, mixing alcohol with soft drinks, beer, caffeine, or industrial fruits with colorants is extremely harmful.

If you mix alcohol with ingredients that have no clear origins, if you do not measure your ingredients or follow any recipe, there’s a high chance you will get food poisoning, feel nauseous, vomit, have a headache, feel dizzy, or have a stomachache. Worse, you may have perception disorder, lose consciousness, fall into a coma, or die.

When you drink mixed drinks, you will feel a sense of euphoria and can get drunk easily. However, you will feel physically exhausted once you wake up.

Drinking an excessive amount of mixed drinks can take a toll on your health, make you physically exhausted, depressed or even become an alcoholic. Soft drinks or soda that has a high amount of CO2 will quicken the alcohol absorption process, make you feel dizzy and give you a headache.

Those who suffer from immunodeficiency, or a chronic disease that affects the liver, kidney, stomach, colon, or cancer, should all the more steer clear from mixing alcohol on their own or abusing alcohol.

Just to be safe, you should drink water to decrease the alcohol content or eat fruits like mangoes, grapes, oranges, or pears. Watermelon is fine too because they contain a high amount of water, which helps hydrate your body after consuming an excessive amount of alcohol.

You should also try eating bananas because they are rich in carbohydrates and potassium, which increases the amount of glucose in your blood and electrolytes after drinking alcohol.

Associate Professor Nguyen Quang Dung

Deputy head of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, Hanoi Medical University.