What foods make a hangover worse? (2023)

What makes a hangover worse?

Fact: In general, the more alcohol a person drinks, the worse the hangover will be. This is true regardless of whether a person drinks beer, wine, distilled spirits, or a combination of these.

' What you are feeling are the effects of dehydration and low blood sugar. To bring your blood sugar back up to normal, you really just need to eat anything with some carbs, but balance it out with protein or healthy fats to prevent further blood sugar drops,” she says.

Drinking coffee or tea

Coffee and other caffeinated drinks act as stimulants, which may improve the feelings of fatigue that come with a hangover. Coffee, black tea, and green tea contain some antioxidants that may reduce the adverse effects of alcohol consumption.

Hangovers vary from person to person, but usually involve a headache, nausea, tiredness and dehydration. Dehydration is one of the main causes of your hangover symptoms.

That said, to make it abundantly clear, drinking water obviously isn't going to do any harm — it's relatively pointless if you're trying to alleviate a hangover but it's hardly likely to make it any worse. "Besides, you can't drink alcohol if you're busy drinking water," said Schmitt.

Steps you can take to improve hangover symptoms include: Eating bland foods with complex carbohydrates, such as toast or crackers. You'll boost low blood sugar levels and reduce nausea. Drinking water, juice, broth and other non-alcohol beverages to reduce dehydration.

Throwing up naturally after drinking may help relieve symptoms of excess alcohol in the bloodstream. Generally, a person may feel better after throwing up the alcohol. If a person throws up shortly after drinking, the body may not have absorbed the alcohol, potentially lessening its effects.

"When you're hungover, you need to hydrate your body. The way you feel – that headache – it's mostly caused by dehydration. Something like Coca-Cola has lots of sugar and fluids and will put those back into your body to get your energy levels up. The caffeine will also give you an energy boost."

Eating greasy foods may help slow the absorption of alcohol in the blood. However, this method is only helpful if a person eats the greasy foods before drinking alcohol. Eating greasy foods the morning after might upset the sensitive digestive system, making the hangover worse.

Should you chug water when hangover?

Drink Lots of Water to Replenish Lost Fluids

While it won't completely prevent the aftereffects of a night of heavy drinking, hydrating with water or other fluids — even if you can only get down a few sips at a time — will help.

“Up to now the only thing that is effective to prevent hangovers is to consume alcohol in moderation,” Dr. Verster told MNT. “Water may help against thirst and dry mouth but other hangover symptoms (e.g. nausea) persist. Dehydration is an effect of alcohol, but not the cause of the hangover.

Alcohol is an osmotic diuretic, which means that when you have a high amount of alcohol in your blood, you pee more than you normally would. Alcohol also blocks the re-uptake of water in the kidneys. So it's a double whammy kind of dehydration.

Alcohol detection tests can measure alcohol in the blood for up to 6 hours, on the breath for 12 to 24 hours, urine for 12 to 24 hours (72 or more hours with more advanced detection methods), saliva for 12 to 24 hours, and hair for up to 90 days. The half-life of alcohol is between 4-5 hours.

Drink plenty of water.

Have at least one 16-ounce glass of water with every 12-ounce beer or 4 to 6 ounces of liquor, for example. Water can replenish your fluids and help you stay hydrated.

Dehydration can also occur as a result of drinking too much alcohol. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it makes you wee more. The headache associated with a hangover indicates that your body is dehydrated. You should try to drink plenty of water when you have been drinking alcohol.