Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Can the Atkins Diet Get You Arrested?
The DuiBlog reports that breathalyzers don't actually measure alcohol content. They simply measure the amount of compounds in the breath that absorb energy--alcohol being a common one. But many other compounds in the breath can also absorb energy, causing falsely high readings. For example, being on a diet that causes low blood sugar can also cause a breathalyzer to reach a high "blood alcohol" content. Since the Atkins diet works by dramatically lowering-blood sugar, be careful before driving under the influence of Atkins. [Mark Godsey]
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2004/11/can_the_atkins_.html