[Edaily Starin YUN GI BACK Reporter] As Red Velvet member Irene has been making headlines for appearing intoxicated, overseas fans have expressed concern over an unexpected detail: the “durian” she ate while drinking.

On the 14th, a video featuring Irene as a guest was released on the YouTube channel “I Haven’t Prepared a Thing.” Known for her typically introverted personality, Irene initially appeared reserved, but she gradually loosened up as she drank.
As she became tipsy, Irene would forget what she was talking about mid-conversation and even act cute toward the producer adjusting her microphone—showing a side of herself rarely seen before, which drew an enthusiastic response from fans.
However, some international fans’ attention was drawn not to Irene’s “drunken cuteness” but to the food on the table.
It was durian, prepared by the production team for Irene, who is known to love the fruit. When Irene began eating the durian while drinking, warnings—particularly from fans in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia—poured in, stating that the two foods should never be consumed together.
Some Thai fans pointed out the risks, explaining that consuming durian and alcohol together can interfere with the body’s ability to break down alcohol. They noted that warnings against mixing durian and alcohol are widely known in Thailand and issued strong warnings that doing so could be dangerous in severe cases.
These concerns are not based solely on mere folklore.
A study published in the international academic journal *Food Chemistry* in 2009 observed that durian extract inhibits the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). This enzyme is involved in the metabolism of acetaldehyde, which is produced after drinking alcohol. The research team suggested that the sulfur compounds abundant in durian may be responsible for this effect. Subsequent animal studies also observed that when ethanol was administered to rats that had consumed durian, the rate at which acetaldehyde was cleared from the bloodstream decreased.
However, based on this study alone, it cannot be conclusively determined that consuming durian and alcohol together will necessarily lead to serious side effects or death. The initial study also explicitly stated that scientific evidence for a fatal interaction between durian and alcohol had not been established.