May 22, 2006 -- Scientists report that alcohol may hit the bloodstream faster when mixed with artificially sweetened beverages, compared with those containing sugar.

The finding was announced in Los Angeles at Digestive Disease Week 2006, an international meeting of doctors, researchers, and academics.

“Substitution of artificial sweeteners for sucrose in mixed alcoholic beverages may have a marked effect on the rate of gastric emptying and the blood alcohol response,” write the researchers. They included Reawika Chaikomin, PhD, and Chris Rayner, MD, of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Adelaide, Australia.

The magnitude of the effect was “striking,” Rayner told reporters in a teleconference.

“I think it’s something that needs to be borne out both in public education and the labeling of these beverages,” he says. Because in the eyes of many consumers, all they think about is the number of units of alcohol consumed and we want to highlight the idea that the context in which the alcohol is consumed is very important” with regards to intoxication.