How bad is it to drink alcohol on an empty stomach?
When we drink alcohol, it gets absorbed by the bloodstream through the stomach and intestines. If there’s no food in the stomach, the alcohol will travel straight into the bloodstream.
It doesn’t take long for this to happen either; about 20% of the alcohol that you drink passes through the stomach wall and can reach the brain within one minute.
Once the alcohol hits the brain, it immediately starts affecting the brain’s ability to control behavior and bodily functions.
Drinking on an empty stomach will cause our blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to spike up rapidly within a short period of time, and as our BAC rises, so does our loss of control.
So before you drink on an empty stomach, consider how alcohol travels through your body:
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