THINK you can avoid a hangover this holiday season by using a few old tricks? Think again.
While the statistics suggest that we’re drinking a little less than we used to, average out the figures and they still equate to each Australian over the age of 15 drinking more than 10 litres of pure alcohol every year.
The Christmas and New Year holiday is often a time when we indulge in more booze than usual. But when you’re deciding whether to have one more for the road, keep these myths in mind. You might avoid a hangover or worse.
Myth: Eating something will soak up the booze
While food does slow down the absorption, once the alcohol enters your bloodstream it will remain in your body until it’s processed. However, eating can slow down drinking and thereby reduce the amount of alcohol you have at each sitting.
Myth: If I have a coffee or an energy drink, I’ll feel fine
Coffee or caffeinated energy drinks may help you feel more awake after a big night but they don’t lessen the effects of alcohol.
“Coffee and energy drinks don’t help process the alcohol and they just add another toxin to your body,” Ms Davoren says. “Your body is already focused on removing the alcohol and it tries to process it first because it recognises it as a toxin. Coffee and energy drinks make your body work harder.”
Myth: A vitamin or electrolyte drink will get me back on track
“These drinks help you hydrate but they’re often high in sugar. And they won’t stop you having a headache,” Davoren says. “Drinking water is the best way to rehydrate your body and to recover from alcohol."
Myth: Alcohol has health benefits anyway
“This is like people eating dark chocolate for the antioxidants. The health benefits of alcohol are overestimated. Nobody recommends taking up drinking for health,” Ms Davoren says.
“Some research shows that moderate - no more than one or two glasses a day - may prevent heart disease in some people, but as soon as you drink more than that the health problems outweigh any benefit.”
Myth: I’m only hungover because I mixed my drinks
“I don’t know what the origin [of this myth] is, but mixing your drinks doesn’t make any difference to your hangover,” Davoren says. “Alcohol is alcohol - if you have too much wine or too much beer, it has the same effect. It puts stress on your liver, dehydrates your body and leaves you with a cracking headache most of the time.”
An interesting read while I'm here sipping a glass of wine.
