4 Meals Individuals Swear Forestall Hangovers—What Science Says

You recognize what a hangover looks like: pounding head, dry mouth, fatigue, an upset abdomen, perhaps even anxiousness. However what really causes one?

“A hangover comes about due to a wide range of various things that alcohol does,” defined Kenneth Leonard, PhD, director of the College at Buffalo’s Scientific and Analysis Institute on Addictions. Amongst them, an evening of consuming can result in:

Dehydration and electrolyte loss
Abdomen irritation
Elevated irritation
Publicity to a poisonous alcohol byproduct referred to as acetaldehyde
Poor sleep
Low blood sugar ranges

With so many unwell results to counter, “avoiding the hangover is much better than treating it,” Leonard informed Well being.

After all, not consuming alcohol is the best (and solely 100% efficient) approach to keep away from a hangover. However the web is full of different supposed prevention ways—together with consuming particular meals earlier than, throughout, or after an evening out with the aim of fending off a tough morning.

Can any of those snacks really forestall a hangover? Right here’s what the science says.

“If you get in from an evening out, have cheese. Cheese and crackers,” one TikTok creator advisable in a January video. “I swear, since I’ve been doing this, I’ve not had a single hangover.”

She could also be on to one thing. One 2023 research utilizing rodents advised that consuming cheese containing particular probiotics could enhance alcohol metabolism and alleviate hangover signs. (Not all cheeses include probiotics, however varieties together with cheddar and Gouda typically do.)

Single research, significantly these performed on animals, ought to all the time be taken with a grain of salt. However Robert Swift, MD, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and human conduct at Brown College who research alcohol abuse, stated there may be some motive to consider cheese would possibly assist you really feel higher within the morning.

“Cheese is a calorie-dense meals,” he stated. “The abdomen goes to take a while to digest it, and that’s going to gradual the discharge of alcohol into the bloodstream.” Plus, cheese tends to be filled with salt, which can assist replenish electrolytes misplaced to consuming.

These potential advantages aren’t particular to cheese, Swift added; they might most likely apply to any meals with an analogous nutrient profile. Nonetheless, perhaps there’s a motive wine and cheese are a basic pairing.

In April, none aside from the producer and songwriter Benny Blanco took to TikTok to recommend taking photographs of olive oil—one earlier than consuming and one midway by means of the evening—to forestall a hangover.

Like cheese, olive oil is digested slowly. Further-virgin olive oil additionally incorporates antioxidants that would theoretically counter a number of the irritation and liver injury attributable to consuming, Swift stated. “However half a bottle of vodka would overwhelm” these compounds simply, he cautioned.

It’s additionally not true, as some individuals say, that olive oil “coats the abdomen” to forestall the aftermath of a boozy evening, Swift stated.

Leonard is even much less satisfied. If hacks like olive oil photographs “have any results in any respect, they’re going to be on the margins,” Leonard stated. “They’re not going to have huge results.”

In a March video, TikTok creator Vanessa Gerstner swore {that a} “mustard pregame”—aka, consuming straight mustard earlier than consuming—might forestall a hangover.

“There’s no proof that that’s going to do something,” stated Sara Hoffman, RD, a medical dietitian with Jefferson Well being.

As with many on-line traits, she stated, this one appears to be restricted to non-public expertise, fairly than precise science. “If it really works for you, nice,” Hoffman stated. “But it surely might simply be a fluke.”

Swift agreed, including that the one potential profit he might consider can be mustard’s excessive salt content material, which might substitute some misplaced electrolytes.

As talked about above, there’s a (very small) quantity of proof that consuming probiotic cheese calms the results of consuming. However what about straight probiotic dietary supplements?

Corporations like ZBiotics, which sells a probiotic drink meant to be downed earlier than an evening out, promise that their merchandise can increase the physique’s capacity to interrupt down acetaldehyde, alcohol’s poisonous byproduct.

That idea has reached TikTok as nicely. Citing a printed research, Hannah Fry, a mathematician and TikTok creator, stated in a latest video that probiotics could give the physique “a little bit head begin” on alcohol metabolism.

The research that Fry talked about, nonetheless, solely checked out how prebiotic supplementation impacts alcohol absorption—not hangover signs. It was additionally funded by an organization that makes dietary supplements.

There’s not a lot different compelling proof to again probiotics as hangover helpers, Swift stated.

“Probiotics aren’t attending to the liver,” or different elements of the physique affected by alcohol, he identified. So even when a complement does assist a bit, it’s not prone to be a cure-all.

There’s not a ton of analysis on how particular meals have an effect on hangovers. However a really small research from 2019 discovered that individuals with diets wealthy in zinc and nicotinic acid could also be much less prone to their signs. Meat, shellfish, and legumes are good sources of zinc, whereas nicotinic acid is present in meals together with meat, fish, avocados, peanuts, complete grains, and mushrooms, in response to the research.

Usually, there’s no must get too hung up on the precise meals you eat earlier than or whereas consuming, consultants agreed. As a substitute, the perfect factor to do is have a stable, balanced meal earlier than consuming alcohol and keep hydrated as you do—particularly when you’re imbibing extra closely. “A glass of water for each glass of alcohol is the rule of thumb,” Hoffman stated.

With regards to taking a painkiller earlier than mattress after an evening of consuming, Swift stated to watch out. Some widespread over-the-counter medicines, like Tylenol, pose hazard to the liver when mixed with booze.

“Bear in mind,” Swift stated, “there’s no remedy besides not consuming.”