You eat a full dinner before and during an evening of drinking. According to the New York manual, what does the food do?

Why

Food changes the speed, not the outcome. The manual says that eating before or while you drink makes the alcohol reach your blood somewhat more slowly, and in the same breath it warns that a meal cannot keep you from becoming impaired or intoxicated once you have had too much. The second option promises far more than that: the more you drink in a given stretch of time, the higher your BAC climbs, plate or no plate. The third option mixes up two different things, slowing the alcohol on its way in and removing it once it is in your blood. For bringing the BAC down, the manual names a single method: stop drinking and let time pass. A big meal does not do it, and neither do coffee, exercise or a cold shower; at most they keep you awake. Dinner can slow the climb a little; nothing but time brings the number back down.