Hi Everyone,
Do you enjoy socializing with a drink? So do I! I am not a big drinker and it doesn’t take much to make me feel unwell after a night out. But as with many things in life, it’s all about moderation and having fun.
Let’s face it, we are not perfect and hopefully never will be. Life wouldn’t be life without ups and downs, boring times, and fun times! And I have a top tip for managing drinking and socializing: drink less and have more fun.
It’s important to socialize and see people. It benefits your mental health and strengthens your immune system. And for many people, socializing goes hand in hand with enjoying a drink. Because of this, small amounts of alcohol are allowed as part of the Eat Burn Sleep lifestyle.
Of course, the downside of having a drink is feeling rough the next day! If you want to know how to deal with a hangover, this post is for you.
Why Am I So Hungry With a Hangover?
How To Recover From a Hangover
What to Eat the Morning After
What to Drink When You Have a Hangover
Get Moving and Shake Off That Hangover
What to Drink to Avoid a Hangover
Why Am I So Hungry With a Hangover?
If you’re like me, after a couple of glasses of wine, you won’t care about watching what you eat. And the next day you feel so ravenous you wolf down food and don’t feel full. So what’s going on?
There are a few reasons why a hangover makes you feel hungry:
- Alcohol is essentially liquid sugar. When you enjoy a few drinks the sugar floods into your bloodstream, elevating your blood sugar levels. A few hours later, your blood sugar levels fall rapidly, leaving you hungry for starchy foods.
- Alcohol is dehydrating. Dehydration can make you crave food as the body sometimes mistakes thirst for hunger.
- Sleep is badly affected by alcohol – especially deep, restorative sleep. You might feel drowsy and fall asleep quickly, but your normal cycles of deep sleep and lighter sleep will be disrupted.
- Poor quality sleep affects your hunger and satiety hormones. Without good sleep, you will have more ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and less leptin (the satiety hormone).
You may be interested in reading about how good, regular sleep helps you lose weight. - Your liver has to work hard to detoxify alcohol. This process uses up a lot of energy and nutrients so it makes sense that your body craves food to keep up with this demand.
How To Recover From a Hangover
Firstly, don’t feel guilty or beat yourself up. You’ve had a great time, and life is to be enjoyed. Overindulging happens.
If you can begin your hangover recovery plan before you go to sleep, that is a great start.
When you get home, drink plenty of water with added electrolytes. Electrolyte minerals like magnesium and potassium help your body to rehydrate faster than if you drink plain water. You can see which electrolyte products I recommend on the Yalda Loves page and I also use this simple homemade electrolyte mixture. Sometimes I take a dose of Alka seltzer* too, to prevent acid indigestion. All the sugar in the alcohol is a big trigger for reflux.
When you get up the next morning, repeat the above. You need to rehydrate and not overtax yourself.
(*Please check with your doctor before taking any over-the-counter medicines.)
What to Eat the Morning After
When I wake up with a hangover, I crave sugar badly, and the last thing I want to eat is something healthy like eggs and salmon! So, I make my super yummy and nutrient-dense coconut protein shake. It satisfies all my sweet cravings while stabilizing my blood sugar levels.
Other great breakfast options include:
Bananas are packed with magnesium, vitamin B6, and fiber.
Avocados are another great source of fiber, magnesium, and potassium to help optimize energy levels and blood pressure.
Almonds for fiber, B vitamins, and antioxidant vitamin E.
And if you can face them, eggs! Boiled, scrambled, poached, or in our delicious Shakshuka recipe.
Eggs are a fantastic source of protein, B vitamins, and glutathione – our master antioxidant nutrient. Your liver needs plenty of glutathione and B-vitamins to detoxify alcohol so it’s a good idea to top up after a night out.
Later on, you could enjoy a bowl of our Immune Boosting Chicken Soup. It’s hydrating and packed with liver-health ingredients like egg yolk, turmeric, carrots, lemon, and olive oil.
You want to fill your body with nutrients and resist the urge to eat junk food. Junk food is precisely that – junk. Ultimately, it will make you feel worse.
You don’t want to punish yourself. Nourish yourself. Eat Burn Sleep’s anti-inflammatory foods deliver what your body needs when you have a hangover.
Members: There’s an Overindulgence Recovery Protocol in the Membership Section, which also covers recovering from overindulging in food.
Non-Members/Members: You could make these egg muffins before your evening out so that you have a healthy snack on hand when you get home.
What to Drink When You Have a Hangover
Water is the most important drink to help relieve a hangover. Drink it plain or add slices of fresh lemon for a boost of vitamin C.
Coffee can add to blood sugar imbalance but if you really want one, have one. Just be sure to have it after a meal and not on an empty stomach.
Green tea has more antioxidants than other forms of tea. It’s a good option for maintaining healthy blood pressure, regulating blood sugars, and optimizing your metabolism (among many other health benefits).
The caffeine in green tea is counterbalanced by an amino acid called theanine. Theanine soothes your nervous system to help you feel alert and calm at the same time.
Get Moving and Shake Off That Hangover
Gentle movement and exercise will get your blood flowing and boost your endorphins (those happy mood chemicals). Aim for a gentle workout, light jog, or easy yoga session. If you can get outside in the sunshine, all the better. Natural daylight and vitamin D will help your body get back into its normal rhythms.
Then, later in the day, Eat Burn Sleep members can relax and enjoy a soothing meditation bath before bed.
What to Drink to Avoid a Hangover
What are the best drinks to have to avoid a hangover? Wine, beer, spirits? Or just let go and enjoy a few cocktails?
Here’s what I do on a night out with friends…
1/ Alternate water and alcoholic drinks to avoid becoming dehydrated.
A little trick is to order sparkling water with ice and a slice of lemon so people assume you are drinking alcohol (and you aren’t being a joy killer) when, in fact, you are taking a little break and having water.
2/ Steer clear of cocktails
I try to steer clear of cocktails because they are loaded with sugar, and I would prefer to save those calories for a nice paleo muffin the next day!
Sugar makes everything worse because it disrupts the healthy bacteria in your gut. Drinking sugary cocktails is a surefire way to feel even worse the next day.
If you love cocktails, try switching to plain spirits like vodka, tequila, and gin with soda water, lime, or a drop of cordial. That amount of cordial is fine compared to how much sugar there would be if it were a cocktail. Again, it is about moderation and finding the right middle ground.
3/ Limit wine and champagne
As much as I love a good glass of wine, I only have one. Maybe two! My health issues make me feel how much yeast and sugar (from the fructose) there is in those drinks, and I invariably feel it the next day. But if you are dining out, by all means, do enjoy some good wine.
I hope this was helpful to you. If you have any tips, please share them in our members’ health community or drop me a message on Instagram.
Don’t forget to smile and enjoy having a fantastic social life!
I chat about the importance of socializing with Nick Potter in the podcast about the behavioral immune system. It’s fascinating! We talk about the immune system, gut health, and socializing (amongst many other things!). Definitely worth a listen!
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Also, if you find that you are regularly getting hungover and feeling anxious or depressed, please know that we have personalized advice for depression on this platform. Plus, Insomnia and 30+ other conditions.
Enjoy your night out!
Yalda x
About the Author
Yalda Alaoui is a qualified Naturopathic Nutritionist with a foundation in Biomedicine. She studied with the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London and has spent over a decade performing groundbreaking research in chronic inflammation and gut health.
