What's the best way to eliminate a hangover without medication? These simple foods can help relieve the effects of alcohol consumption

Saturday, April 16, 2016 by: Sarah Landers
Tags: hangover foods, alcohol consumption, natural remedies

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(NaturalNews) You know the feeling – your head aches, you are ridiculously thirsty, your stomach is nauseous, and getting out of bed, eating food or even drinking water can seem like insurmountable tasks. When a hangover kicks in, many of us want to find a "cure" – fast. No one has the time to spend a whole day recovering from a night out – so we make the mistake of reaching for over-the-counter (OTC) medication.

Your friends have probably suggested that you try out one of many bogus hangover cures, such as drinking some alcohol in the morning as "hair of the dog" or stuffing your face with a greasy breakfast – but none of these will actually work. Meanwhile, your common OTC pain medications, while extremely convenient, have been linked with heart attacks and strokes.

It's important to understand what is going on inside your body in order to then appreciate what will and will not cure your hangover. According to Medical News Today, a hangover is caused primarily by the fact that alcohol is a diuretic – making you urinate more frequently and become dehydrated. It's the dehydration that you will want to mitigate first, as this will be causing your headache, dizziness and thirst.

The rest of the symptoms are caused by various other factors:

• Your body's immune system response might mean you have inflammation in your body, affecting appetite and mental function.
• Stomach pains and sickness are generally caused by an increase in the production of stomach acids – leading to nausea.
• As well as dehydration, headaches can also be caused by dilating blood vessels due to alcohol consumption.
• Lack of sleep contributes to your general feeling of sickness and low mood – your quality of sleep will be poor thanks to the alcohol in your system, making you tired the following day.

So what does actually work to alleviate these symptoms? Well, you'll be pleased to hear that there are several foods you probably already have available in your cupboards that will help you get over that nasty hangover.

Pickle juice – yep, that's right!

According to Spoon University, while you can probably think of nothing you want to do less than drink pickle juice on a dodgy stomach, research has shown that drinking it can actually help with your symptoms – or prevent a hangover altogether.

If you drink approximately one-quarter of a cup of pickle juice right before you fall asleep or as soon as you wake up – whichever you prefer – it will encourage your body to store water, as the juice is mostly salt and vinegar.

Banana

Packed full of potassium and magnesium, a banana can help you boost your body's important nutrients that will have depleted while you were consuming alcohol, as reported by Bel Marra Health.

Being low in potassium can contribute to the feeling of nausea, so you'll want to get more potassium into your system as soon as possible. Bananas will also give you the energy you need after a night of poor sleep.

Eggs

Minus the greasy fry-up, eggs are high in protein, which will help with your feeling of nausea and also pick up your low mood. They also contain a lot of important amino acids which will aid your body as it tries to cleanse itself of the toxins you put into it by drinking alcohol.

Fruits and vegetables

As with bananas, there are many other fruits and vegetables that will help your body to stock back up on essential nutrients such as B and C vitamins and iron. The easiest thing to do is make yourself a lovely smoothie with fruits, vegetables and water that will help you replenish nutrients and rehydrate at the same time. You can then sip your smoothie slowly until you start to feel better.

As always, prevention is far better than a cure – so it's worth staying hydrated during your evening of drinking and making sure that you drink some water between alcoholic drinks. Try to stop drinking after you feel the desired effects, so as not to cause yourself too much pain the next day.

Sources include:

SpoonUniversity.com

BelMarraHealth.com

MedicalNewsToday.com