Did you vow to take control of your health this year? Did you make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight? If so, you may have done your research on different ways of eating to achieve your goals. Perhaps your research led to you to the Keto diet.
Proponents of the diet talk about the health benefits, but your research may not have uncovered a downside that could put you in the back of a police car.
How does eating Keto translate to a DWI arrest?
In order to understand how this could happen, you may need a refresher on how the Keto diet works. This method of eating burns your fat as fuel through ketosis. In this state, your body may produce enough acetone to affect a roadside breath test, especially if it’s your cheat day and you had a couple of drinks before driving. You probably didn’t think you were impaired when you got behind the wheel, and under ordinary circumstances, you may not have been.
However, the combination of just a couple of drinks and the acetone in your body could push your BAC over the legal limit in a roadside breath test. Courts usually don’t allow the results of these tests into evidence in court since they are notoriously unreliable. However, they do provide probable cause for a Florida officer to arrest you on suspicion of DWI. Now, you are in the unenviable position of facing charges that may have come about because of your choice of diet.
Acetone presents a problem for diabetics as well
A growing number of people living with diabetes choose the Keto diet as well since it limits or eliminates sugars and other high glycemic foods. This could prove problematic since diabetics usually have higher levels of acetone in their systems already. When the acetone from ketosis is added to that, it could spell trouble if a police officer suspects you of drunk driving.
It’s not a foolproof defense
While your choice of diet or diabetes could affect the results of a roadside breath test, it doesn’t mean that you have a foolproof defense against DWI. The only way to avoid charges for this offense is to not drink and drive. However, if you do have a drink or two, drive and end up under arrest for DWI, your diet or the fact that you have diabetes could play a role in your defense since one or both of those conditions could have pushed your BAC over the limit.