Can eating yeast keep you from getting drunk?

[Spitball]

I don't know what to think about this. It might be beneficial if I need to drive after drinking, but part of the fun of drinking beer is to get a bit of a buzz...or sometimes more than a buzz.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-fo...t-to-get-drunk

Here is a link to to Snopes says:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/yeast.asp

[westofyou]

Saw that, I plan on testing it myself... will report back

[jimbo]

I just may have to try this tomorrow while tailgating at Keeneland for the Derby.

[goreds2]

Saw that, I plan on testing it myself... will report back

Update?

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I just may have to try this tomorrow while tailgating at Keeneland for the Derby.

Update?

[westofyou]

Going to see Guided By Voices Saturday, might give it a whirl

[reds44]

Might give you an infection too.

[jimbo]

Update?

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Update?

A friend and I did consider it for derby day, but our tailgating adventures at Keeneland involves large quantities of consumption. Wasn't sure I could handle that many teaspoons of active yeast in a day.

We are gong to try it eventually though and will post my experience.

[Yachtzee]

Count me among the skeptics, simply because it doesn't make sense to me. Yeast lives on eating sugars and converting them to alcohol. That is how we get our beer, wine and most other alcoholic beverages. So if yeast also produces an enzyme that breaks down alcohol, wouldn't the yeasty enzymes break down the alcohol as it makes it, rendering the beer and wine non-alcoholic or at least less alcoholic?

[Yachtzee]

I'd also note that the feeling of being less drunk may be because the testers just shoveled a bunch of yogurt down their throats along with the yeast. Part of what affects blood alcohol level is whether alcohol is drunk on an empty stomach. If you drink on an empty stomach, the alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream faster than on a full stomach, can increase BAC faster than the liver can metabolize the alcohol.

What really surprises me is that Koch, being the businessman that he is, hasn't created a product out of this. He has the money to fund research to see if it really worked, and if it did, it would only be to his advantage to put such research to work to make a marketable product out of it. Because if it's really breaking down the alcohol and preventing people from getting drunk, imagine how much more beer he could sell.

[Larkin Fan]

So if yeast also produces an enzyme that breaks down alcohol, wouldn't the yeasty enzymes break down the alcohol as it makes it, rendering the beer and wine non-alcoholic or at least less alcoholic?

I can see where one might think that, but the reaction is actually more complex than that. During a fermentation reaction, alcohol dehydrogenase catalyzes the reaction, resulting in consumption of the enzyme. There wouldn't be any ADH left to break down the alcohol end-product.

[RedlegJake]

I tried this. My buddy came over and we experimented with a case of beer. Ordinarily it takes about 2 beers for me to feel a buzz (light drinker). Yeast tastes like crap!!!!! To offset the moldy bread taste I actually sprinkled packets on homemade bread quarters and folded them into yeasty sandwiches. Gave the bread a rich but strong flavor that was palatable. We ate one finger yeast-wich with each beer. I drank ten beers in 3 hours with this "hors d'oeurve" between each. Copped a light buzz and went to the bathroom a lot. I'd say it worked but then, was it the yeast or the amount of bread? All I know I should have been face down but felt good. The Reds lost 8-0 so I wish it had not worked.

[Yachtzee]

I can see where one might think that, but the reaction is actually more complex than that. During a fermentation reaction, alcohol dehydrose catalyzes the reaction, resulting in consumption of the enzyme. There wouldn't be any ADH left to break down the alcohol end-product.

I'm not buying it until someone has results based on scientific testing and I would highly recommend against anyone thinking they can drive using this method. As an attorney who deals with DUIs on a regular basis, my concern is that people will think they can drink a bunch of alcohol using this method, feel they are ok to drive, and get a DUI. All I see right now is anecdotal evidence, which means you can't tell if the method really works or is the result of a placebo effect.

[vaticanplum]

Sounds like the world's worst idea for women.

He mentions mixing the yeast with yogurt "to make it more palatable". Any woman who's ever taken antibiotics will tell you that you have to eat yogurt while you're on them, because antibiotics kill off healthy bacteria along with bad bacteria, and the live and active cultures in yogurt replace enough of the good bacteria to prevent you from getting...a yeast infection. I can't make the connection of why yogurt would serve that purpose here since bacteria-killing antibiotics are not involved, but the yogurt choice seems too coincidental for science not to be involved there.

But in short, there is basically no way I am ingesting straight yeast into my body, yogurt/sobriety or not

[westofyou]

I'm not buying it until someone has results based on scientific testing and I would highly recommend against anyone thinking they can drive using this method. As an attorney who deals with DUIs on a regular basis, my concern is that people will think they can drink a bunch of alcohol using this method, feel they are ok to drive, and get a DUI. All I see right now is anecdotal evidence, which means you can't tell if the method really works or is the result of a placebo effect.

Once again a lawyer shows up and ruins our fun!!

[Rojo]

I'm not sure why you'd want to do this. If you don't want to get high, drink ginger ale.