At this time of year it’s easy to feel like every weekend is taken up by one social engagement or another, be it a simple barbecue with friends or a wedding with all the trimmings. Either way, indulging in a tipple or two is often unavoidable (short of going tee-total!) and before you know it, the over-indulgence is playing havoc with your body. Although we by no means advocate binge-drinking, raising a glass of bubbly on a special occasion is a lovely treat, so we thought we’d put together a list of our top ways to avoid getting a horrid hangover (is it just us, or do they last for 3 days now we’re older?!) and to reduce the damage done by drinking alcohol.
Give Your Liver a Chance
The liver has a lot of work to do when you decide to drink alcohol, so boosting it with some liver-friendly foods can go a long way to helping you to recover. Avocado, lemon, green tea, cinnamon, garlic and beetroot are just a handful of the many foods which are kind to the liver and will also help to replenish vitamins and minerals which were wiped out by the booze.
H2O
Staying hydrated is so important when consuming alcohol and it’s often dehydration which causes the headache and other horrible symptoms during a hangover. Try to drink one glass of water after every alcoholic drink you have and you’ll have a fighting chance of avoiding the muzzy head the next day.
Eat First
Drinking on an empty stomach is a classic schoolboy error and is certain to both get you drunk faster and leave you feeling horrendous. Eating before you start drinking is super important and food such as meat, cheese, nuts and olives can all have a positive effect – sounds like an excellent excuse for tapas to us!
Avoid coffee
Although it’s almost an inbuilt instinct to reach for the coffee pot on the morning after the night before, coffee can actually make hangovers a lot worse. Coffee is a known diuretic and will almost definitely increase fluid loss and therefore increase dehydration. If you need a hot drink, go for something gentler like Rooibos tea (redbush tea) which is proven to have a positive effect of gut health and is used to help babies with colic in developing countries.
Go for a run
…or in fact, do any type of exercise, as long as you do some. Exercise may be the absolute last thing on your mind when all you want is a sausage and egg McMuffin and your boxset of The Good Wife, but it will boost your metabolism and therefore increase the rate at which your body processes what you’ve drunk.
Remember, always drink responsibly, use a good eye make-up remover before bed and follow the steps above to ensure a good night and an even better morning after!