[DrN (OP)]

I can't find a discussion on this, which i think is odd!

why do the bubbles in champagne get you drunk so much quicker than a still wine of the same alcohol content?

[neilep]

That's a great question Lindsay.....If I DID alcohol I would then strongly suggest some empirical study for this one....hope an answer comes soon.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[DrN (OP)]

still thinking about it - though obviously more than most of you lot!

do you think it could be down to alcohol being dissolved in the air in the bubbles, therefore more easily absorbable into the blood? or maybe the liquid is in fact more easily absorbable, and the bubbles reducs the volume of liquid and hence make the alcohol concentration in the liquid relatively higher?

basically i havn't a clue!

[daveshorts]

It could be that the bubbles produce a spray of chmpagne over the glass so lots of alcohol evaporates, so when you sip the champagne in, you breath some tof this in. I would have thought that if you breath alcohol it will be absorbed a lot quicker than if you drink it...

[rosy]

I'd heard something about the bubbles meaning the alcohol was dissolved faster through the tissues of the palate... so you don't have to wait 'til you've swallowed the drink for it to start having an effect.
Possibly also you're expecting to get drunk faster on champagne....

[Corbeille]

Somehow the CO2 in the bubbbles get the alcohol into your bloodstream quicker.




 Nah pop no style, a strictly roots!

[Andrew K Fletcher]

Corbielle, I am with you on this.

Possibly the gas in the Champaign alters the density of the fluids in the gut, and therefore enables the body to pull it into the bloodstream more easily. The opposite being a dense stomach contents after eating a large meal, which causes a drag effect on the uptake from the gut into the circulation, inducing tiredness.

To support the density claim, Challengers for North and South Pole expeditions lose a tremendous amount of body weight, despite eating supposedly energy rich foods with high fat intake, such as chocolate. Maybe if they went for a more easily absorbed diet it could help them combat the bulk losses from the body.


"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[chris]

People trekking in the extremes of the Arctic and Antarctic burn off enormous amounts of energy via thermogenesis - heat production - to replace what they are losing via conduction, convection and radiation of body heat to the environment. Just breathing contibutes to a huge heat loss. Add to that the physical demands of what they are doing and it is clear where the energy is going.

Since there's a limit to how many calories the gut can process, and how many calories a meal can supply under those conditions, these factors become the limiting factors.

And the reason that eating prior to consuming alcohol reduces the rate at which you become drunk is because food solids delay gastric emptying, unlike fluids which leave the stomach for the intestines, where efficient absorption occurs, much more rapidly.

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[daveshorts]

The reason that the North and South pole challengers loose so much weight is that they are burning about 8-12 000 Calories a day, both because of the hard physicsl work they are doing, and the amount of heat they haev to generate in order to avoid hypothermia and I belive that the human gut can only absorb 5-6000 a day especially if it is doing hard physical work. What they eat is somewhat limited in choice as it has to be extreemely light and compact as they have to carry it.

Different foods are differently easily absorbed - sugar very easily, and fat more difficultly, however this is do do with the amount of processing that is required to get them into a state that will get them through the gut wall - fats have to be broken down into fatty acids and glycerol to be absorbed, which requires quite a lot of effort, where as glucose will go straight through the stomach wall.

I think the reason you are tierd after a large meal is that blood is diverted to your digestive system to provide it with oxygen to power the process and to absorb the nutrients. This does not leave enough resources for you to do violent exercise so you feel a bit sleepy.