WIAW: Cures for Overimbibing.

April 17, 2013 by betterwithsprinklesblog 49 Comments

Good morning! Once again, we’re at the midpoint of the week.

Which of course, means that it’s WIAW!

So, Saturday morning (the morning after my night out at the banquet) my stomach was not happy with me. I wasn’t hungover, per say…but my stomach was making it clear that going back and forth between wine and gin all night was not the best way to go about it. Ugh.

Usually when you talk to people about hangovers, they will tell you their sworn cures for the nausea and the headaches.

I’ve heard of the greasy diner breakfast – grease and carbs as the way to make you feel better.

In Turkey, apparently the cure for a hangover is Kokorec: a streetcar dish made with lamb intestines.

Italy? Coffee and fruit juice.

Russia? Pickle juice.

just take a swig.

 

So today, I’m going to talk about my own hangover/alcohol-related queasiness cures. Fortunately, I don’t deal with this problem as much as I did 3-4 years ago, but it’s best to have a plan of attack

 

Morning Mix

Right when I woke up, the usual ACV mix.

Of course, your body is going to be dehydrated after you toss back a few too many. This means: lots of liquids and water. I made sure to tote my water bottle around with me all day!

Breakfast

Oats with blueberries, blueberry jam, peanut butter, and a fried egg.

All I want the morning after is carbs, so oatmeal or toast is my immediate go-to. I know a lot of people favour the greasy diner breakfast after a night out, which might not be a bad idea. Apparently, going for eggs is a smart move. When you drink too much, your body produces acetaldehyde – eggs contain a chemical found in your body’s natural defense to acetaldehyde, therefore cleaning up leftover toxins. So the morning after, eggs may be your best bet.

I had to run errands that afternoon. And by errands, I mean I needed a new purse. I’m picky, but I’m cheap, so it resulted in about 1 1/2 hours of walking around the mall.

I am happy with what I picked out though! I find that walking definitely helps when I’ve got alcohol-related queasiness. I cannot handle anything too extreme though – no running or intense workouts.

Lunch

I was starving when I got home from grocery shopping, so I went for carrots and hummus while I put lunch together.

• carrots: for detoxifying vitamins and minerals.
• chickpeas and other beans: fibre, folic acid and protein. All aids in recovery.

A sweet potato with cinnamon, Greek yogurt and almond butter, plus a crumbled turkey sausage and spinach in olive oil.

mmm…more carbs. Apparently, dairy is a good choice before drinking, because it lines the stomach and slows the absorption of alcohol. The proteins in nuts make them a good choice to nibble one during the night – apparently, there’s a reason for the barrels of peanuts you see at some bars.

spinach – for help detoxifying the liver and reducing symptoms.

I also sipped at a ginger kombucha throughout the afternoon. Too much drinking tends to make my digestive system pretty unhappy with me, so I picked up a kombucha to try to get it sorted out as quickly as possible. And ginger flavoured, because we all know that ginger helps with nausea.

Dinner

So, my personal hangover cure is sushi.

I discovered it one evening last year, after a particularly harrowing night (it involved a certain ‘bomb’ that was on sale that night…not recommended). I basically laid on the couch and nibbled at crackers all day, feeling like crap. Then, my boyfriend’s mother offered to take Eric and myself out for sushi. I can never turn down sushi, so I picked myself up and went.

Afterwards, I felt 100% better. It sounds counterintuitive (raw fish when you’re feeling nauseous? Sodium when you’re dehydrated?) , but it makes sense, promise

So, Eric and I went to our usual place (Sushi 8) for dinner.

Seaweed salad and green tea to start, of course.

Salmon and mackerel sashimi for me, and salmon sushi for Eric. Something about foods with high fat content (like salmon) just make my stomach feel a lot more settled.

Mmm, sushi.

The far two rolls are Eric’s – a black dragon and a tempura salmon. The other two are mine: Eel special roll (spicy crab roll topped with eel, avocado and tobiko) and yoyogi roll (black peppered tuna and avocado with spicy tuna on top).

I know a lot of fried foods will make me feel awful, but getting a little bit of crunch (in the eel roll) definitely helps. And apparently, wasabi is a fantastic hangover food. It stimulates blood circulation, which in turns helps remove headache-inducing toxins from the body.

Just to fill in the cracks:

A chicken teriyaki roll that we split. Chicken in sushi is a little weird, but I still like it.

Sugar usually has no appeal when my stomach is feeling off, but I can always go for a fortune cookie.

Good way to end the night

And of course, I felt fine by the end of the night. Gotta stick with what you know!

Have a good day!

<— Do you have an ‘I-imbibed-too-much’ cure?

<— Could you drink pickle juice? I like pickles…but no. Could not do it.

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