The day after: How to recover from a New Year’s Eve hangover

You wake up tired. Your head feels like it’s going to explode, the whole world is spinning and the mere thought of getting up and going to the bathroom seems like an impossible task.

No matter how good your New Year’s party was it might be followed by an unpleasant hangover that ruins the first day of the new year.

So what do you do to get rid of your hangover? Or even better, to prevent it?

Read on and take inspiration from our hangover cures.

Rehydrate

If you’ve ever drunk any alcohol you know it makes you go to the bathroom more often and leaves you thirsty at the same time.

That’s because alcohol obstructs the absorption of water in your kidneys and is also a diuretic, which explains all the trips to the bathroom.

So, logically, to recover from that dehydration you need to drink some water!

Once you’re tired of water, you can get yourself a glass or two of Coca-Cola. This fizzy goodness contains caffeine and sugar which can help relieve your headache and keep the fatigue at bay.

At least for a while.

Eat some fruits and (fermented) veggies

Bananas & avocados

After a night of drinking, get yourself some nice and ripe avocados and/or bananas for a hangover breakfast.

Since our alcohol-stricken bodies are losing potassium and sodium, eating foods rich in those can help with hangover symptoms.

Other fruits

Juicy fruits with a high sugar content, such as mangos, oranges or grapes can be a useful tip as well.

The fructose (or fruit sugar) contained in fruits can help give you a little bit more energy after a night of heavy drinking.

Fermented vegetables

Eating pickles when hungover is my dad’s go-to remedy (together with a shot of rum or slivovice, but I personally wouldn’t recommend that one).

Unlike another shot of alcohol on top of your hangover there is some evidence in favor of pickles and other fermented foods.

They’re packed with probiotics, microorganisms living in your gut that are responsible for keeping your body in balance – which is of course disrupted when you drink alcohol.

Apart from pickles, sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) and kimchi (fermented vegetables), you can also drink some kombucha (fermented tea) or kefir (fermented dairy product) to get the benefits.

Get yourself some eggs

To help get rid of that terrible headache, you can try eating some eggs.

Apart from the fact that they’re super simple to make even if you’re tired and feeling crappy eggs also break down acetaldehyde – a chemical released by metabolizing alcohol in your body.

Keep it simple if you feel nauseous

Some people simply have worse hangovers than others.

And then there are some who end up hugging the toilet bowl while they empty their stomach vomiting.

If you’re one of the people whose internal organs cannot handle alcohol well you might just stick to the BRAT diet – bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast – to calm down your stomach.

But most importantly – drink responsibly

Although there are some foods and drinks to help you with a hangover the sure-fire way to not feel terrible after a night of drinking is to be careful with drinking.

So load up on some greasy food beforehand, don’t mix a lot, and make sure you’re drinking water alongside of your alcohol – or at least drink a glass of water before bed.

Your morning self will thank you