FOOD NEWS
Does Eating Yeast Actually Stop You From Getting Drunk?
By Andra Picincu
Yeast plays a vital role in the fermentation process of food and beverages and can be used to make bread, wine, beer, cider, coffee, and even chocolate. However, it seems that yeast can do more than assist in creating other foods and beverages because, according to co-founder of the Boston Beer Company Jim Koch, it can also prevent you from getting drunk.
Koch told Esquire that he supposedly never gets drunk because he eats a tiny amount of dry yeast before boozing. He said he learned this trick from Joseph Owades, a biochemist who discovered that alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH), a group of enzymes in dry yeast, can degrade alcohol molecules and prevent ethanol from entering the bloodstream.
Along with yeast, ADH also plays a key role in alcoholic fermentation, and after conducting several studies, Owades reportedly found that ingesting yeast right before drinking can lower blood alcohol levels by 20% to 38%, reports Forbes. However, his research has never been replicated or published in peer-reviewed journals.
Robert A. Sclafani, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado, told Forbes that stomach acid would destroy the yeast and cancel out the effects of ADH, so it’s unlikely that Koch’s yeast trick works. While some types of yeast can survive in the stomach, it’s hard to tell how yeast ingestion impacts alcohol metabolism, so it’s likely Jim Koch may have developed a tolerance to alcohol.