The danger of diet soda mixed with alcohol

You may get drunker faster when you mix your bourbon or rum with Diet Coke instead of regular Coke:

"Alcohol, consumed with a diet mixer, results in higher (BrAC) Breath Alcohol Concentrations as compared to the same amount of alcohol consumed with a sugar-sweetened mixer," says Cecile Marczinski, a cognitive psychologist who authored the new study.

Why? Turns out that sugar slows down the absorption of alcohol from the stomach to the bloodstream...

Marczinski's study found that the average BrAC was .091 (at its peak) when subjects drank alcohol mixed with a diet drink. By comparison, BrAC was .077 when the same subjects consumed the same amount of alcohol but with a sugary soda. "I was a little surprised by the findings, since the 18% increase in BrAC was a fairly large difference..."

Further details at NPR's The Salt.