How-to safely enjoy drinking on Purim

Be wellOnce a year on Purim, Jews celebrate our deliverance from annihilation in Persia and just for this holiday, it’s OK for Jews to drink enough to become tipsy. Comedian Sol Auerbach shares good advice on how to enjoy the pleasant effects of an alcohol buzz without causing bodily harm to yourself – tips that are good for any occasion when people are imbibing spirits. Thanks Sol!

In a nutshell: drink a lot of water to stay hydrated, eat and stop if you begin to feel woozy. Here’s Saul’s complete list:

Enjoy alcohol drinks on Purim without getting sick, hungover, or worse

  1. Water: Follow every drink (or every two drinks) with at least one full cup of water.
    This will keep your body hydrated and seriously reduce your chances of passing out, getting sick/hungover, or G-d forbid ending up in a hospital.

    Dehydration is one of the main causes of hangover symptoms and drinking water along with any alcoholic beverage can prevent those symptoms. Drinking a cup of water before you start drinking alcohol, and after every drink (or every two drinks) will go a long way towards relieving hangover discomfort.

    DON’T drink a whole lot of alcohol and wait until you need to throw up until you finally drink some water. Wherever you go, bring at least 2 bottles of water with you and follow every 1 or 2 drinks with at least 5 ounces of water.

  2. ONLY drink on a full stomach or after eating a substantial amount of food.
    Drinking on an empty stomach is simply dangerous. Most people don’t realize that drinking alcohol on an empty stomach should be avoided because it leads more quickly to intoxication. Neither do they realize what a big difference drinking with food in the stomach can really make. For example, Swedish researchers had a group of people consume a few drinks after an overnight fast. The next day they had the group consume the same amount of alcohol in the same amount of time after eating a modest breakfast. After having breakfast, the group had a much lower average blood alcohol level — only 75% of the BAC reached when drinking on an empty stomach.

    Eating food – especially proteins, fats and dense carbohydrates – slows down the intoxication rate, as does drinking slowly.

    Don’t drink too fast, too much at once, and don’t chug. Chugging is very dangerous because it leads to faster intoxication as the alcohol is absorbed directly into the bloodstream and neutralizes the body’s ability to reject the toxin by vomiting.

    If youre fasting on Taanis Esther then avoid getting drunk Purim night. Save it for Purim day time.

  3. Drink Moderately! This bears repeating.
    If you do not drink to the point of total intoxication, your chances of vomiting or getting sick/hungover is very slim. Although there are exceptions, generally only people who drink to excess will experience sickness.

    DON’T play the game of, “I know what I could handle.” Play the game of, “I know when to stop.”

    Some days our bodies are not able to handle the same amount of alcohol as it has on prior days. Just because you were able to handle X amount of drinks at previous parties and situations, this IN NO WAY indicates you will be able to handle that same amount of alcohol.

    The number one reason people end up hospitalized for drinking too much is because they had previously drank the same amount of alcohol without having any problems and so did it again. The same way you can’t handle the same amount of food or soda every day, you can’t handle the same amount of alcohol each time you drink. Regardless of how much or little you drank, as soon as you feel any symptoms of drunkenness (slight head-aches, dizziness, nausea, needing to vomit etc), stop drinking alcohol IMMEDIATELY and drink some water.

Purim Sameach!

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