What foods do you usually eat the day after drinking? Typically, symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and discomfort occur after consuming alcohol. Even for heavy drinkers, hangovers are inevitable after excessive drinking. Which foods are considered the best hangover remedies in different countries, and whether they are effective?
Tomato Soup
In Italy, a tomato soup boiled with onions and clams is consumed for hangovers. Tomatoes contain B vitamins and lycopene, which help break down alcohol. The taurine in clams also helps protect the liver. It is also good to make soup using tomato paste with a higher lycopene content. Tomato salad sprinkled with tomato juice or oil can also be expected to have a hangover effect.
Fruit Juice and Sports Drinks
Fruit juices and sports drinks are rich in electrolytes. When you drink excessively, dehydration occurs due to diuresis, and in this process, a large amount of electrolytes are excreted from the body. Therefore, drinking plenty of electrolyte-rich drinks is necessary to replenish fluids and electrolytes. For electrolyte replenishment, juices or sports drinks are more helpful than water.
Various Hangover Soups
Spicy and salty hangover foods can cause secondary damage to the gastric mucosa due to their high salt content and stimulation from the spicy taste. Also, the liver is busy detoxifying the remaining alcohol the day after drinking. If synthetic flavor enhancers or food additives are added to the hangover soup, it puts more stress on the liver. Most spicy soup dishes are also problematic because they are greasy. Greasy foods slow digestion, add stress to the stomach, and interfere with the supply of nutrients to the liver, hindering hangover recovery.
Pickled Herring
In Germany, herring pickled in salt and vinegar is consumed. Herring is rich in amino acids such as aspartic acid, which provides nutrients to restore damaged liver cells. It is also rich in EPA, DHA, and other omega-3 fatty acids, abundant in brain nerve tissue.
Persimmon & Plum Pickles
In Japan, people eat pickled persimmons and plums as a hangover remedy. Persimmons contain vitamins C and A, water-soluble tannins, and other substances that stimulate metabolism. Persimmons are higher in vitamin C and water content than sweet ones, so consuming them for hangover relief is better. Research also shows that pyruvic acid and picric acid in plums increase the activity of alcohol-degrading enzymes by nearly 40%.
Fried Eggs
In the United States, many people soothe their upset stomachs with fried or scrambled eggs. The essential amino acids in eggs help restore damaged liver cells, and lecithin has a preventive effect against gastric ulcers. However, if you fry or deep-fry eggs in oil, they become high in calories and can strain the stomach, so it is better to eat one boiled egg to avoid burdening the body and increase the hangover effect.
Water Dropwort Food
Water dropwort, often eaten in the spring, is an excellent food for detoxification. It protects the liver soaked in alcohol and is suitable for headaches or vomiting symptoms caused by hangovers. Eating pufferfish with water dropwort, a popular hangover food is even more effective. Many people eat the stems and throw away the roots, but they are also rich in nutrients, so cleaning and cooking them is good.
Sweet Honey Water and Chocolate
The best hangover remedies are honey water, candies, chocolates, etc., which contain a lot of sugar. Alcohol generates lactic acid during the breakdown process, which interferes with the synthesis of glucose in the body. Therefore, consuming honey water, chocolate, sweet persimmons, etc., which have a high sugar content, the day after drinking alcohol can help relieve hangovers. This is also why many people receive glucose solutions the day after drinking.
The Best Hangover Food is Water
The best food for hangovers is water. It replenishes the excessive amount of water lost from the body due to the diuretic action of alcohol and dilutes the alcohol in the body. Eating cucumbers, eggs, or apples also helps because the water in cucumbers prevents dehydration symptoms. If you need to eat soup, non-spicy bean sprout soup is good, and the ‘aspartic acid’ in bean sprouts helps break down acetaldehyde in alcohol.
Will Hangover Alcohol Become a Hangover Remedy?
Hangovers start when the blood alcohol concentration decreases and become the worst when the concentration drops to zero. If you drink more alcohol to cure the hangover, the blood alcohol concentration increases, making you feel better for a while, but then you get drunk again. As time goes by and the hangover alcohol is broken down, the hangover comes back, creating a vicious cycle.
By. Sin Young Jeon
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