In a perfect world, you’d be able to have as many drinks as you want, have a wonderful time, and wake up with no consequences whatsoever. But I’m sorry to have to report that we do not live in a just world, and so hangovers do in fact exist. And if you’ve ever been so unfortunate as to have had one, you’ll know that they are terrible.
So. Solutions. There are old wives’ tales, and there are dubious new preventative pills to swallow. Somewhere amidst all this is an obvious factor: food.
We’ve all heard something or other about lining your stomach before drinking, but does it work? If it does, then how? And what foods are best? We’ve consulted the experts.
Can eating before you drink prevent a hangover?
“Preventing a hangover by consuming food before you start drinking is theoretically possible,” says Dr. Sally Adams, an associate professor at the University of Birmingham who researches hangovers and alcohol use. “But there isn’t direct evidence showing that by eating a certain meal, you have a less severe hangover the next day—that type of evidence just doesn’t exist.”
What there is evidence for, says Dr. Adams, is that eating before you drink can slow down your body’s absorption of alcohol, thereby limiting the spike in your blood-alcohol levels, your drunkenness, and the extent of your hangover the next day.
What’s the best food to eat before drinking?
Even if there’s no direct evidence that link specific foods to less severe hangovers, we can still make an educated guess about which meals might be better than others. For this one we consulted Dr. Duane Mellor, a dietitian who works with the NHS and is an honorary associate professor at the University of Leicester. “Fats and proteins produce a hormone called cholecystokinin, or CCK for short, that means the stomach slows down its emptying,” he says, thereby slowing the absorption of alcohol. “The other thing that will slow your stomach emptying is a stretch. The more stretched it is, the slower it’ll empty.” People sometimes talk about bread or other carbs being able to “soak up” alcohol—that isn’t true, but a carb-y meal could contribute to the stomach-stretching that may help things a little.
One thing to note: Mellor says that, just as fats, proteins and a full, stretched stomach can slow down your absorption of alcohol, carbonation can speed it up. That thing people say about anything with bubbles getting you drunk fast? Actually kind of true. So watch it on the lagers, champagne, prosecco, et cetera.
Can eating after a night out prevent a hangover?
Maybe a tiny bit, but not in the way you’d think. As with eating carbs beforehand, the commonly propagated idea that a kebab, burger, chips and cheese or (insert drunk food of choice) can “soak up the alcohol” is a myth—once the alcohol’s in your stomach, nothing that comes in there afterward is going to have any effect on how the alcohol affects you.
What it can do, says Mellor, is mitigate the drop in blood sugar levels that can happen after drinking and contribute to a hangover. And as Adams adds, there’s something called the “expectancy effect” which means that, if you think something’s going to help your hangover, then there’s a good chance it actually will. Adams stresses that a huge element of hangovers are psychological. “We did some research with young people where they planned a hangover when they knew they’d got nothing to do the next day, and actually it was seen as quite an enjoyable part of the socializing,” she says. “If you wake up alone on your sofa… you’re gonna feel very different.”
