[The dilemma of Danish Christmas lunches]

Abstract

We investigated the impact of food ingestion, water intake, sleep and exercise on the elimination of ethanol, and self-assessed ability to drive a car. In a cross-over design, four fasted healthy participants each underwent one day of oral ethanol intake followed by one of the abovementioned interventions and one day of oral ethanol intake followed by bed rest (control day). The elimination rate of ethanol was minimally affected (numerically it was increased by food ingestion and water intake, reduced by exercise and unchanged by sleep) and self-assessed driving abilities were associated with great variability.