It’s 2 AM and your night is just getting started. The music is blaring, and the bar is a blast. The morning will never come. You’ll be young forever. Or at least, until your alarm hits the next day and you have to make it to that insane Friday morning class. Why would you pick a class on a Friday morning? What a huge mistake. You can’t skip it, though. You’ll have to sit there and suffer. But with the right hangover food, you can limit the lasting effects of the night before.
We’re not saying that these foods are going to cure all that ails you in a moments notice. Time is still the ultimate hangover cure. And before time does its job, you can still treat your symptoms with ibuprofen and Pepto Bismol. Just don’t use any acetaminophen – according to WebMD, too much of it can lead to liver damage.
So take something to help ease your immediate symptoms and then set yourself up for a day that’s successful rather than strenuous with these high power hangover foods.
What to look for in hangover food
Foods high in potassium
Start here. You lose a potassium when you pee. When you drink, you pee. So drinking dehydrates you and robs you of an essential mineral. Potassium helps your muscles contract and contributes to the regulation of fluids and minerals throughout the body. Without it, you’ll be prone to muscle weakness and fatigue. Sound familiar? So grab some of this high potassium stuff:
- Coconut Water
- Bananas
- Avocados
- Yogurt
- Fish
Foods high in cysteine
According to How Stuff Works (*bookmarks site*), cysteine rids your body of the stuff that’s causing all the problems in your liver. Cysteine is “the substance that breaks down the hangover-causing toxin acetaldehyde in the liver’s easily depleted glutathione.” Certainly every hangover food is doing double duty if it fills you back up and gets rid of everything that’s robbed your body of its usual pep. If only cysteines could go back and keep your phone locked.
It turns out that your regular breakfast is already providing you with a healthy dose of cysteine every morning. Snack on these breakfast favorites alongside your banana and yogurt:
- Eggs
- Bacon
- Ham
Drink water, not juice
Everyone knows that water is essential after a night of drinking. You’ll be incredibly dehydrated, so getting water back in your body will help ease a headache and contribute significantly to your resumption of life.
But when you’re hungover, fruit juice isn’t going to come to your rescue. In 1976, scientists from the National Institute of Health (very official sounding) studied 109 male volunteers and found that fructose and glucose did not impact their hangover:
The results indicate that both fructose and glucose effectively inhibit the metabolic disturbances induced by ethanol but they do not affect the symptoms or signs of alcohol intoxication and hangover.
Rather than fruit juice, stick with water or maybe a sports drink with lots of sodium.
The ultimate hangover cures.
This stuff checks multiple boxes on our essential vitamins and minerals list. If you want the most hangover bang for your buck, invest in:
- Coconut Water
- Salmon
- Sunflower Seeds