Drinking and Driving Thru? Fast Food isn’t a Smart Sobriety Method

On any given day, we pass dozens of fast food restaurants as we drive around, each offering the satisfaction of a full stomach through the miracle of drive-thru service. Fast food restaurants aren’t known for healthy options, but, the convenience they offer often lures us into the drive-thru lane, despite our best intentions… and that’s when we’re sober. For anyone who has had a late-night craving for tacos after a long night of drinking, the normal resistance to paper bags full of food can be too much to resist, but, remember that unless you’re the passenger in a car, you are drinking and driving… thru.

It is probably the fast food restaurants that stay open late or provide 24/7 food access that are often used as a method to sober up before driving home. Leaving a bar that has stopped serving food may easily lead to the intoxicated belief that a little snack will help get you home without a second look from the police. However, no matter how much food you eat after you’ve been drinking, that food will not magically make you sober. There are not enough tacos, onion rings or super burgers to remove the alcohol from your blood: you are still drinking and driving.

Instead of drinking and driving, you should plan a sober way home before you even head out for the night. Knowing that you might be facing court costs and fees, an ignition interlock installation, or far more tragic results of your faulty “fast food sobriety plan,” you could, instead, satisfy your craving for junk food by asking a friend to drive you, or even your taxi driver. Since late-night drive-thru restaurants may seem the most tempting after you’ve spend the evening drinking with friends, remember that nutritionally, and perhaps legally, you’ll be much better off if you make healthy choices when you eat, as well as when you drink. Skip the drive-thru and find a sober way home. The tacos you crave will be there the next day, and they are a much better “cure” for a hangover than for being drunk in the first place.