Best Hangover Food Remedies

Best Hangover Food

It’s sometime in the morning or at least in the ballpark of noon and you and your friends have come to the crucial final step of a great night out, picking the best hangover food to make the pain stop. There are many ways to decide what the best hangover food is, usually a lot of it will come down to old habits, however if you went out without first reading this excellent guide on how to avoid a hangover then you may have some additional factors come into play to choose the chow that will best help you put last night behind you and take on your day. While sometimes just chowing down on a big greasy breakfast at your favourite early morning joint is enough, there is actually some science involved that can REALLY help you with that hangover. Here are a few of the best hangover food options for beginning your next day recovery.

Avoid the Grease

Although grease is your friend when you are out drinking, it has very little to offer you the next day, besides being generally unhealthy for you. On the best of occasions the grease will in fact irritate your stomach more than it already is. While you may be able to get down the grease unscathed the more likely scenario is you staring at your half plate full of bacon and sausage dripping sweat while you try and figure out what made you decide to order that, or worse praying to the porcelain gods.

Fruits are your Friend

Yes unfortunately just like in regular life fruit and of course vegetables are going to be the best hangover food to turn too. I mentioned fruit predominantly as it has the morning mastication market on lockdown, sure you can eat vegetables with breakfast, but a bowl full of berries or a few orange slices just fit so much better. The reason fruits and vegetables help so much is that they not only have a lot of the vitamins that you will inevitably loose to dehydration but they are usually also rich with antioxidants. Also the benefits of fruits and vegetables are easily attained in juice form.

Eggs should Come First

While I’m afraid I do not have the answer to the age old question of which came first the chicken or the egg, I can tell you that eggs are always a welcome addition to your post hangover meal. They are not only full of nutrients, and low in fat, but they are fairly adaptable to many different forms of breakfast, be it a platter of eggs bacon and potatoes, on a sandwich, in a smoothie or maybe even something a little more exotic. Eggs are always my go to best hangover food option. Keeping all that in mind here are just a couple of potential options you could start with when looking for that morning after meal.

Breakfast Sandwich

The sandwich is a a great way to construct your breakfast, it is the blank canvas upon which you can paint your dream meal making it as healthy or unhealthy as your heart desires, (or can tolerate). For the healthy minded some sort of whole wheat bread and or bagel topped with an egg white and spinach omelette and maybe a slice or two of tomato will definitely give you a boost to start the day. If that’s a little bland for you try adding some Sriacha sauce or perhaps cheese or bacon for a little more excitement.

Best Hangover Food - Sandwich

Smoothie/Shake

This is the perfect vessel to load up on one of the best hangover food options; fruit. Banana’s should be key when making a smoothie, they contain potassium which the body dearly wants and needs but which you lost a lot of with your alcohol consumption the night before, not only that they blend well and help add smoothness, other options too include would be, berries, an egg, crushed ice for those really fancy folks, and of course yogurt. While I can’t promise that your fruit and yogurt smoothie will make you as happy as the women in the yogurt commercials it’s an easy way to get what the body needs, especially on the go. Also for those who need a bit of a pick me up consider adding a shot of 5 Hour Energy or a similar product to your shake.

The Liquid Diet

Sometimes circumstance, or your stomach wont permit you to partake of either of the first two options but you still need to get your body started on recovering. This is where an assortment of beverages can help fill the void your body needs. Sports beverages such as Gatorade or Powerade are the perfect drink for after a hangover they have all sorts of sodium and electrolytes that your body needs to replenish itself, drinking these along with lots of water, some pure orange juice, (or whatever your fruit juice of choice happens to be) and maybe an energy drink should get you up and running. When it comes to energy drinks try and avoid lots of caffeine as it will further dehydrate you. The quick shots are sometimes the best option for the morning after drinking.

The Egg Brew

This final option is not for the faint of heart, it’s may help with the symptoms of your hangover but it is still not to be taken lightly. The final hangover “breakfast” involves cracking an egg into a fresh pint of beer and then drinking it. Legend has it this helps rid you of your hangover although I can see their being some negative backlash several hours down the line, this best hangover food option is more for the “Rob Ford” type person and is not recommended for everybody.

Best Hangover Food Ideas

Hopefully these best hangover food suggestions will help you to make some solid choices the next time you tie one on and are looking to reboot the next day.

How To Avoid a Hangover

How To Avoid A Hangover

The answer to the age old question of how to avoid a hangover is as much an art as it is a science. While a lucky 25 to 30 per cent of people are naturally hangover-resistant, the rest of us suffer. Luckily, there are a few effective science backed ways the rest of us can learn to survive the dreaded morning surprise and live to drink another day. Here’s how it breaks down.

A hangover is caused by your body metabolizing alcohol and its impurities. Alcohol is essentially a poison and is metabolized by your body as a toxic sugar. Nausea that may accompany drinking is your body’s way of saying WTF are you doing to me. Alcohol also contributes to dehydration which can result in pounding headaches. When you’re dehydrated, the tissues surrounding your brain shrink since they are composed mostly of water. This in turn exerts actual physical pressure on the brain. This is a hangover in a nutshell.

How to avoid a hangover with chow

Everybody loves to chow down when they’re drunk for a good reason. Eating before or after drinking helps to lessen the effect of alcohol by ensuring the party in your stomach is attended by more than just booze. The extra guests help to keep the alcohol from getting out of hand.

 How To Avoid Hangover With Food

Food plays the biggest role in answering the question of how to avoid a hangover. In fact, eating food before drinking has been shown to be most effective antidote. Also keep in mind that not all food is created equal in the hangover prevention game. Fatty foods are high in protein which binds with alcohol molecules and slows its absorption into the bloodstream. This gives the liver more time to process the good stuff and makes all the difference. It’s a good idea to combine some eggs and bacon with your bender. Breakfast joints fill up fast after last call for good reason. Eggs are also packed full of taurine (the good stuff in energy drinks) which has been proven to reverse liver damage caused by booze. Check out this article for more hangover food ideas.

How to Avoid a Hangover with Water

Like coffee and cranberry juice, alcohol is a diuretic which depletes your body of water. Your body is made of around 60% water and that level has to be maintained for your body to work well. The best advice Jon Taffer ever gave on Bar Rescue (that didn’t involve running a bar) was to drink a glass of water for every alcoholic drink you throw back. This helps to dilute the effect of the alcohol and in turn helps to prevent a hangover. Give your liver more time to process the alcohol and it will thank you in the morning. Also consider replenishing your body’s stores of vitamins and electrolytes which have likely been washed out by alcohol. Folate and potassium are especially important. Both can be found in bananas and spinach.

How to avoid a hangover with the right potions

If you’re especially susceptible to hangovers, stick to potions light in colour. Darker liquors (and pretty much all liquers) contain congeners and other things your body sees as impurities. Congeners are substances that are produced during the fermentation process. When your body metabolizes them they contribute significantly to your hangover.

Drinking a glass of milk helps to slow the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. This also means you won’t be the first to get drunk and awaken with a mural painted on your face. Drinking ginger tea will also help to keep your stomach calm. Ginger is known to prevent nausea.

How to avoid a hangover with jedi mind tricks

A number of studies in the recent past have shown that a person’s preconceived expectations of alcohol consumption determine the affect more so than the amount of alcohol that is actually consumed. In other words, if you expect to get drunk it will take less alcohol to get you drunk. Shady bar owners have known this for years. That’s why so many get away with watering down your favorite potions. Drinking less alcohol puts less physiological strain on your body so less suffering will likely accompany the sunrise. The preconceived expectations of the accompanying hangover must be adjusted accordingly and therein lays the trick. The mastery of this method of hangover prevention should not be attempted by the novice.

How to avoid a hangover with abstinence

I couldn’t write an article about how to avoid a hangover without saying that the absolute most effective and universally recognized way to avoid a hangover is not to drink in the first place. Not drinking alcohol will keep you hangover free 100 per cent of the time, every time. Check out the video below to summarize what I’ve covered and don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Credits: Maggie Cooper