Hangover Cures

Hangovers can be an unpleasant side effect of drinking too much alcohol, but there are a number of common, nutritious foods that also help prevent hangovers as well as cure hangovers after the fact.

Bananas are one of the cheapest, easiest hangover foods.  How do they work?  One of the many nutrients that your body loses when you consume large quantities of alcohol is potassium.  Bananas are potassium rich as well as being high in magnesium.  Magnesium relaxes blood vessels which can help reduce the miserable pounding of your head.  Bananas are also high in vitamin B6, one of the vitamins known to help cure hangover symptoms.  Bananas are also a natural antacid and can help alleviate heartburn symptoms.  You can eat them alone or make a banana milkshake with honey.

Another food that is both delicious and an effective hangover cure is a bacon sandwich.  You might not be all that surprised by this, after all, bacon is a greasy food and greasy food has long been used to soak up excess alcohol in the body.  However, when it comes to a bacon sandwich, it turns out there is more to it than just the grease.  The bread is high in carbohydrates and the bacon is high in protein, which breaks down into amino acids.  Consuming alcohol depletes neurotransmitters which can be offset by increasing amino acids, like those in bacon. There’s even something in the smell of bacon that makes us feel better.  The reaction between the amino acids in the meat, and the reducing sugars in the fat, creates an almost irresistible smell that makes us want to eat it. Since smell and taste are closely linked, both of these processes make us actually want to eat bacon, even in the midst of a hangover.

Asparagus, especially the fresh young shoots, is a healthy food anytime; it is high in folate, potassium and vitamin C, and contains cancer-suppressing antioxidants.  Asparagus shoots, especially the leaves, can also protect the liver from the toxic effects of alcohol.  A study from Korea used the extracts from the leaves and shoots of asparagus to treat the effects of ethanol, and other alcohol toxins in the livers of rats.  They found that the livers treated with both of the asparagus extracts greatly alleviated the damaging effects of the toxins.  In addition, two key enzymes that metabolize ethanol, were twice as effective when the asparagus extracts were present.  The study found that the extract from asparagus leaves were somewhat more effective than from the stems because they contain higher levels of amino acids and inorganic minerals.

Whether before, during or after drinking, eat one of these nutritious foods to make the hangover effects of a night on the town a little less unpleasant