Drinking alcohol in a survival situation

I know we have all heard this conversation before, "don't drink alcohol because it is a diuretic and excessive urination will cause dehydration". That is what we have all heard and we swear by it. But is it true?

Granted, drinking 70-proof alcohol will do that. Whiskey and survival don't go hand in hand if it causes you to dehydrate. But what if you could evaporate the alcohol content and keep the remaining water? Alcohol should evaporate at a temperature below water boiling since its boiling point is 173*F so if you heated it you could reasonably reduce the alcoholic content.

Now lets say you have 5-6% beer. Is the alcoholic content already low enough to have a minimal diuretic effect? Or is it the salts in the beer that cause an imbalance and thereby cause you to urinate? We all know the effect of pounding down several and needing to find the washroom shortly after but part of that is because we have consumed so much fluid!

But if you came across a single beer in the wilderness, would you drink it or throw it out? I just watched an episode of Dual Survival where at the start of the show they reach into the pack to check out their supplies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEalKkJnrfM They immediately dump the beer because of its diuretic properties. Is this a mistake? Wouldn't consuming 1 beer, even relatively slowly have little diuretic effect? The beer is still 94% water and water is necessary for the body thus you wouldn't the hydrating effect of the water content would be greater than the diuretic effect of slowly consuming 1 beer.

I know they were trying to make a point to the viewers but in this case is it a valid point? (I don't want to read rehashed quotations from some old survival guide that we have accepted as gospel. I want honest opinions based on facts, chemistry and real world studies because sometimes its better to take a step back and think and challenge conventions.)

Can beer prevent dehydration? Definition of Diuretic

3.2% beer here,heck yeah I'd drink it.

I don't know about dehydration specifically, but I have seen enough of the effects of alcohol in the outdoors to really get my blood boiling.

I became sick and tired of hauling victim after victim, often dead, out of the woods and finding that their blood alcohol level was comfortably above the legal limit for intoxication. Alcohol impairs your judgement - not only that, it makes you do stupid things.

I doubt whether the dehydrating effects of a single serving of beer would appreciably affect someone in an outdoors setting or cause any problems that could not be countered by a glass or two of H2O. And I suppose the immutable laws of physics would allow you to boil off the alcohol if beer was all you had. I would avoid all alcohol in any significant undertaking. I dimly recall some research involving marathon runners in which impairment could be demonstrated for hours after the consumption of a moderate amount of booze.

By the way, the opinion I have just stated is quite different from the actions I took in my youth. I was lucky.....

If you want chemistry brought into this, then Blast Ph.D. is the guy.

Essentially, I think I agree with what has already been stated. A single beer or stiff drink shouldn't compromise things. It is probably best to use it as purifying agent if there is enough alcohol to make a difference. I am not sure how much "sissy" or regular beer is need to treat a liter of water. Any help from a qualified source(not a Holiday Inn Express frequenter) would help.

A single beer, normal alcohol content, isn't going to do too much to an adult. I definitely would NOT pitch it - if I thought there was a serious risk of dehydration. I also wouldn't drink it if I knew I was in a siutation requiring critical judgment. Drink it when you're relaxed. It's still liquids. So the bottom line ... is that it depends upon your specific situation. But it's a "resource" just like anything else.

Pete2

I think that this was a mistake in this case to ditch the beer straight away. If your going to find a backpack just lying their in the middle of Zambia with cans of beer, then there is always chance of finding the other backpack companion holding the lemonade. There is nothing like a Shandy to quench the thirst later on when you eventually find a water source to cool off the beer.

2 cans of beer would also be equivalent to 300-400 Kcal of energy being thrown away, if water to quench dehydration wasn't a problem.

But then again the empty beer can makes for a fine container for Joe Teti's urine, which in other episodes he doesn't have much of a problem drinking. Must be a Special Forces thing.

Would alcohol be a good thing to have when coming across a clear but questionable source of water? By that, would the alcohol kill any parasite in the water?

Jeanette Isabelle

My dad always warned that a seemingly endless array of actions by me and my brother would cause us to "dry up and blow away". Maybe this is what he was speaking about?

Seriously though, if I found a can of beer in the wilderness I would, without delay, start a concentric search for pizza and jerky.

I also think that beer would be worthwhile--I'm part of the beer=liquid bread crowd. Also, for what its worth, Great Grandpa sailed (not motored, sailed) out of St Johns, Newfoundland as a ships carpenter on Cod fishing boats, and in the Great British sailing tradition (apparently no longer honored ), was issued 8 OZ of Rum (he said 151 proof) per day to "keep warm". Since he lived into his late 80's, apparently it did not hurt him (at least not too much).

Seriously, I think a bit of alcohol can help warm a person up, and help---too much certainly bad, but a bit, yes. Beer has a lot of carbohydrates, and they always help.

It seems to work on tequila worms, but it's possible they just drowned.

George Carlin has presented another hypothesis:

“One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.”

Jeanette Isabelle

Links explaining how alcohol causes the body to lose water:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm

http://mason.gmu.edu/~cpernica/analysis.html

I saw a part of that episode of Dual Survival , and as they were emptying the beer cans on the ground, I was wondering : How about mixing that beer ( diluted alcohol ) with some bad water and letting that little alcohol do some water sanitizing. The process would - in theory - consume the alcohol in the beer, as well as sanitize more water.

After mixing the water with the beer, they could boil whole thing. Boiling will get you (a) evaporating any remaining alcohol (b) making sure that nasty critetrs are dead.

Sounds like overkill, but better than throwing that precious liquid in the first moments of their situation.

From a guy who drinks urine???? So much for their 'expert' advice IMO.

Look,if beer was such a potent diuretic they would let people in Congestive Heart Failure drink all they wanted,they DONT.

Pure nonsense IMO. Im drinking that beer.

Yeah I saw that episode of DS and disagreed with their decision as well. You always hear that survival is a "calories game'", and how important it is to conserve calories. Then you see them just dump "food that doesn't run very fast" as Cody would say, into the dirt... Makes no sense to me.
If dehydration is the major concern, then just hold on to the beer until you find a water source. Duhhhhh. Then drink the beer (calories), and use the can to boil the water; and rehydrate.. It's gonna take time to get the water to boil, cool, and drink enough to hydrate. By the time your done with that any "Effects" of the alcohol will be long gone.
Maybe you'll want a nap, by your fire, but rest is a good thing.

Me personally, I'm drinking the beer at some point..

Frankly, I have a hard time taking any advice coming from the TV re survival very seriously. They were dumping beer primarily for the shock value. And I would certainly hang ont any available food in a tight situation. Haven't they heard of a traditional backpacking strategy - eat the lightest food last?

Define "survival situation".

If I'm stuck in a stranded vehicle and the best plan is to stay there for at least the next day or so then I wouldn't mind enjoying a little drink in the company of good friends. Since we're stuck anyway we might as well enjoy ourselves, right?

If I need to be at or above 100% mental and physical capacity I don't touch alcohol.

About the "liquid bread" analogy: It would be very interesting to see some qualified judgement about how many beers you should drink (along with plenty water) to optmimize performance. Following the guidance in my old friend the Swedish army survival manual http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads/pdf/h_overlevnad.pdf about 500 kcal per day (preferably carbohydrates) is a nice tradeoff for adequate performance in a low food situation. So a little more than two pints per day should do nicely, energy wise, sipped a little now and then throughout the day. I'm not so sure I like the idea on combining a pint with advanced navigation skills on an empty stomach, though...

Oh, about the Swedish survival manual: It is written in 1988. I'm sure our knowledge about how cognitive and bodily functions are impared in a low food/no food situation has improved since then, but I can't find it. I'm interested in what to do when faced with little food and you still need to do physical labour and/or generate body heat so you don't freeze to death. If anyone has material on that subject I'd love to hear about it.

Wasn't it common for monks to drink beer while fasting?

Yes, bock beer.

Alcohol will just cloud judgment, slow reflexes and cause you to lose heat, all bad for survival.

It will definitely kill parasites if you have enough to boil the water. If you think to kill them by mixing the water with the alcohol, forget it. A concentration that kills the parasites would still be a pretty stiff drink.

They were allowed to have up to 3 liters. Bear in mind that they did not have to perform tasks that require good judgement and they had access to any amount of drinking water the wanted.

Seriously, alcohol does not help to keep warm or get warm (provided the person drinks it). It makes a person feel warm and waste body heat.

(I didn't read whole thread...)

I'd definitely drink a beer if that's all I had. The calculation is simple: Does beer tend to hydrate you (even it's just slight)? Or does beer tend to dehydrate you? I think it's the former.

Absolutely agree.