New Year’s Eve is a night full of boozy celebration, which means that January 1st has the potential for being one of your most hungover days of the next calendar year. Looking to wake up with some sense of clarity and vitality? Here are a few tips on how to keep the liquor flowing tonight, while avoiding the dreaded hangover in the morning.
1. Pick Your Poison.
Although the alcohol itself is the main culprit, congeners play a supporting role in the production of your hangover. Congeners are chemicals created as byproducts during fermentation. Along with enhancing the taste and appearance of a drink, they are also associated with increasing the intensity of hangovers.
Congeners are found in darker liquors, including brandy, cognac, tequila, whiskey, and red wine. Clear liquors, including vodka, gin, clear rum, and white wine, contain little to no congeners. Vodka is the most highly filtered and contains Absolut(ely) no congeners. A study conducted by Brown University compared the effects of bourbon vs. vodka consumption, concluding that beverage congeners were significantly correlated with hangover severity.
What’s the best choice? Organic white wine or champagne. These drinks eliminate pesticides and limit congeners, which decreases the amount of chemicals being processed by the liver. As a lovely bonus, you are also ingesting the antioxidants and flavonoids present in the grapes.
2. Get Some zzz’s.
Despite the traditional practice of having a nightcap, drinking alcohol before bed can negatively impact the quantity and quality of your sleep. Alcohol does act as a sedative, so it will decrease the time it takes for you to fall asleep. However, it is metabolized quickly and its effects pass within a few hours (depending on the amount consumed). It therefore disrupts the natural sleep cycle, causing you to experience lighter, less efficient sleep. And sleep deprivation is a major factor contributing to your hangover.
Make it a priority to get uninterrupted sleep during the nights leading up to a party and leave time for yourself to sleep in a few extra hours the following day. Deep, restful sleep is one of the most powerful ways to help the body remove the toxins from alcohol and recover. To read more about the healthy impact of sleep, check out my post: Sleep More & Balance Food Cravings.
3. Eat Bitters for Breakfast.
Ever wonder why your hangovers seem to be getting worse year after year? Systemic inflammation (from chronic illness, stress etc.) tends to increase with age, which means that your liver and adrenal glands have more to process on a daily basis. Toxins from alcohol are then being introduced to a depleted, taxed system. Consuming bitter herbs, sulfurous vegetables, and high-quality protein can help stimulate liver detoxification to more efficiently clear the alcohol from your system.
Bitter greens include kale, arugula, artichoke, dandelion greens, broccoli rabe, endive, radiccio, and watercress. In addition to their nutrient-rich profile, they contain glucosinilates – compounds that work to increase glutathione, which is the body’s most powerful antioxidant. Bitters also help to stimulate secretion of bile acid to help remove fat-soluble toxins from the body.
Sulfurous vegetables include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, and kohlrabi. They are rich in sulforaphane, which is another powerful antioxidant that plays an important role during phase 2 of liver detoxification. Amino acids (building blocks of protein) are also required during this phase of detox. Consuming high-quality protein in the form of pastured eggs, wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, natural nut butters, and plant-based protein powder will provide your liver with the antioxidants it needs function properly.
Morning After Meal Ideas:
- Frittata made with a mix of bitter & sulfurous vegetables
- Smoothie with plant-based protein powder, almond milk, banana, cinnamon, kale & watercress
- 2 Hard-boiled eggs, sliced and served with avocado & arugula on sprouted grain toast (sprinkled with cayenne pepper)
4. Rehydrate and Replenish.
At the end of your night, replace wine with water. Drink at least 16 oz of filtered water before heading to bed. Continue to drink plenty of filtered water throughout the following day to fully rehydrate the body. Try also drinking coconut water to replenish lost electrolytes. Feeling nauseous in the morning? Sip on organic ginger tea to soothe your stomach and help ease the body’s inflammation after a long night out.
In addition to your water, reach for a B-complex vitamin to help metabolize alcohol and protect the liver from alcohol-related damage. B vitamins also stimulate energy and are essential for emotional well-being.
References:
Rohsenow DJ, Howland J, Arnedt JT et al. Intoxication with bourbon versus vodka: effects on hangover, sleep, and next-day neurocognitive performance in young adults. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2009; 34(3): 509-18.
Ebrahim IO, Shapiro CM, Williams AJ, and Fenwick PB. Alcohol and sleep: effects on normal sleep. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013; 37(4): 539-49.