Is Yeast the Answer to Sobriety?
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David Becker/Getty Images for Nightclub & Bar Media Group(NEW YORK) — Sam Adams co-founder Jim Koch believes he has a solution for people who want to stay sober while drinking his beer: swallow yeast first.
In an interview with Esquire magazine, Koch, chairman of the Boston Beer Company, claims by mixing some yeast into some yogurt before drinking, he can stay sober all night long.
The ratio, he claims, is “One teaspoon per beer, right before you start drinking.”
Koch said that he learned the trick from a friend with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, who said that enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) in the yeast will break down the alcohol before it enters the bloodstream, keeping the drinker from any embarrassing drunken missteps.
“And it will mitigate — not eliminate — but mitigate the effects of alcohol!” Koch adds as a disclaimer.
However, experts say there’s a lot that can go wrong with Koch unorthodox plan.
Dr. Richard Peek, gastroenterologist and director of the Gastroenterology, Hematology and Nutrition at Vanderbilt University, said different people can have very different reactions and pointed out there’s no medical study that has shown that yeast can help inhibit drunkenness.
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