THE KETO DIET DUI: Is Ketosis a False Positive DUA to the Breathalyzer?

THE KETO DIET DUI: Is Ketosis a False Positive DUA to the Breathalyzer?

Within the past ten years, the Ketogenic diet has evolved into a niche medical therapy into a mainstream way of life. Millions of individuals have abandoned carbs in favor of healthy fats to shed pounds, enhance mental acuity and enhance energy to boost their performance.

There is however, an unanticipated side effect of this metabolic shift that not many nutritionists discuss or even many drivers know, and that is that a strict Keto diet can actually make a breathalyzer believe that you are under the influence.

This is an urban legend but the science is well documented. When you are deeply in ketosis, even without drinking a drop of alcohol, you might come in blowing a false positive on a breath test. This is why the diet could serve as your greatest liability in the passenger seat.

THE SCIENCE of ketosis and breathalyzers.

To get the problem, you need to be able to figure out how a breathalyzer operates. Fuel cell technology is used in most police grade breathalyzers to indicate when there is ethanol (drinking alcohol) in your breath. These are meant to test the chemical degradation of alcohol as it is evaporated through your blood to your lungs.

Nevertheless, such machines cannot always be advanced enough to tell the difference in the type of chemical compounds that have a similar structure.

When you are in Keto diet, your body ceases to use carbohydrates as a source of energy and begin using fat as a source of energy. This is known as ketosis metabolic state. The result of the fat burning process is ketones. Acetone is one of the main ketones generated.

When that word is heard, it is due to the fact that acetone is the chief component of nail polish remover. It is also alcohol-based, namely, isopropyl alcohol. Although it is not the ethanol in beer or wine it is similar off chemically to the point that older breathalyzers which are less specific can confuse the two.

THE “ACETONE” FALSE POSITIVE

You lose acetone in your urine and in your breath when you are in the deep ketosis. That is what makes the notorious Keto breath that tends to have a fruity or metallic smell.

It is a diet outcome to a human. It may appear to a machine as intoxication.

Suppose you have been starving or strictly following your diet, the acetone levels in your breath might be so many that a breathalyzer reads them. Although it will not often put a huge number in like 0.15, it can easily shift a result in an innocuous 0.00 to a paranoid 0.03 or 0.04.

Even one glass of wine will have an accumulative effect on the combination of the real ethanol and the dietary acetone, should you have already taken a glass of wine–since this could have left you significantly below the legal limit. The machine combines them, which may make you exceed the 0.08 legal limit by false means.

THE “KETO FLU” and Field sobriety Tests.

The issue is not just with the breathalyzer. Low-carb diet may also have physical side effects that will ruin your performance on a Field Sobriety Test (FST).

As the body enters ketosis, or when a dieter is hypoglycemic (low blood sugar), he/she tends to develop the so-called Keto flu. Such symptoms are dizziness, fatigue, loss of brain, slow reaction times, and even lack of balance.

Just picture being at a side of the road, one leg holding upright as one experiences low blood sugar and dehydration typical of the diet. You might wobble. Slurring can be caused by dry mouth. You might seem confused. These are signs in impairment that a textbook would tell an arresting officer.

You are drunk (having trouble walking), you smell of alcohol (breath acetone), and the machine declares that you are in the system of alcohol. It is a wrongful arrest dream.

The reason why you should have a specialist Atlanta DUI lawyer is as follows.

When you happen to get into such a situation, the defence of I only had two beers cannot apply. You are contending with a chemical reading which has in general been taken as a fact by the court. You must have a defense which strikes against the science of the test itself.

It is an intricate field of law which demands an in-depth knowledge of physiology and forensic toxicology. One should not simply hire any general practice attorney. What you need is a qualified Atlanta DUI Lawyer who understands how to issue subpoena of the maintenance records of the exact model of breathalyzer that was applied and assert his capability to differentiate between ethanol and acetone.

It is in this particular nexus between science and law that experience is most important. That is the reason why James Yeargan is often referred to as the most successful Atlanta DUI lawyer He knows that a breathalyzer reading is only a piece of data, and this data is incorrectly understood unless you know the background of the human body.

PROTECTING YOURSELF

In case you are on a strict Keto diet and get pulled over, you have to be aware of the risks.

To begin with, tell the officer that you have a certain eating disorder which can interfere with the breath results, but remember that they will not necessarily believe you.

Second, consult requesting a blood test rather than breath test. A blood test is much more precise and can differentiate ethanol (alcohol consumption) and ketones (byproducts in the diet). Although it is more intrusive, it might be the only method of showing that the odor that the officer smells of alcohol is simply the consequence of your lunch.

Lastly, when you get arrested, be sure to notify your legal crew of your diet as soon as possible. It is not merely a attribute of lifestyle, but it is an imperative forensic proof.