The Morning After: 5 Ways to Avoid a Hangover

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Sure, you’ve been drinking since Brandon Walsh first moved to Beverly Hills, but somehow you still manage to get king-size hangovers. How is this possible? You’ve learned how to invest wisely and talk your way out of speeding tickets, so how has mastering the art of not feeling hungover continued to elude you? Thankfully, The Village Voice comes to the rescue with five ways to avoid those morning-after blues.

1. Eat Your Supper. It’s much better to drink on a full stomach than an empty one — you create a buffer between your bloodstream and the alcohol. Foods rich in B vitamins might help prevent hangovers, like most fish and fortified cereals, and so will eating foods with olive oil and drinking milk.

2. Mix Well. We’re not saying you’ve got to choose one type of booze and stick to it all night. But remember a few rules: Go from drinks with a low-alcohol content to higher ones gradually over the course of the night. Also, dark liquors will give you a worse hangover, and if you start out drinking red wine, don’t switch to anything else.

3. Splurge. If you’re drinking expensive booze, you’re much more likely to avoid a hangover than if you’re drinking frat-guy fare. For one thing, you’ll be able to afford less, and therefore, you’ll drink less. Secondly, if your drink is of a higher quality, it’ll probably be less likely to land you head-first in the toilet tomorrow.

4. Avoid sugar. Some of the best cocktails are ones that don’t taste anything like alcohol, and we can thank the high sugar content for that. But don’t order drinks that are full of sugar or syrup — fewer calories and you won’t feel like crap in the morning.

5. Drink Up (But Not That). Drink water before hitting the bar, while you’re at the bar, and after you get home from the bar. Being dehydrated is the reason you feel like hell in the morning.

via The Village Voice