When you drink alcohol, your body experiences a variety of changes. This includes alterations to the type of food you crave. Interestingly enough, alcohol intake encourages the brain to release galanin, the neurochemical that promotes a need for fatty foods.
Glycogen is what your body likes to fuel itself off so when you use your glycogen stores to metabolise the alcohol, your body is crying out for more. Hence, your body urges you to replace these stores and makes you hungry.
Unfortunately eating greasy food to cure a hangover is a myth, you should actually eat healthy food because the nutrition will help offset the negative effects of alcohol.
First, when you are ill your body will tend to seek out easy and fast sources of energy, and that means sugar and things that can quickly and easily be turned into sugar. In and of itself this is completely normal, it is how the body gains the energy needed to heal itself.
Grease, contrary to popular belief, won't absorb the alcohol (especially if you slept before eating—your body already absorbed it). Not only that, but if you've ever woken up with an upset stomach kind of hangover, greasy food's only gonna make it worse.
No food can erase the effects of a night of drinking alcohol, but the best hangover foods are hydrating and anti-inflammatory. Rest helps, too. Try to avoid greasy foods, sugar, and caffeine which can make your symptoms worse. Instead, stick to water and foods like bananas and crackers.
McDonald's Eggs Sandwiches
According to Medical News Today, eggs are a great hangover cure food because "eggs are a good source of nutrients and contain simple proteins that are particularly gentle on the stomach." Plus, the biscuit will give your body some carbs to help sop up the last of that ethanol.
According to Fitness and Lifestyle Performance Coach Ben Greenfield's website, your McDonald's craving could be a sign that your body is low on essential fatty acids, calcium, iron, and/or chloride, and that you're experiencing stress hormone fluctuations.
Why it makes you feel worse: “Fatty foods take longer to move through the digestive system, which can make nausea worse and trigger acid reflux,” Dr. Bhatia says. And because they also trigger muscle spasms in your intestinal tract, they can make diarrhea worse. Save the burger and fries for when you're feeling better.
Steer clear of fast food when you're sick or fighting off a cold. Refined sugars and artificial sweeteners cause inflammation within the body, so do your best to avoid highly processed foods with added sugar in them.
' What you are feeling are the effects of dehydration and low blood sugar. To bring your blood sugar back up to normal, you really just need to eat anything with some carbs, but balance it out with protein or healthy fats to prevent further blood sugar drops,” she says.
"When you're hungover, you need to hydrate your body. The way you feel – that headache – it's mostly caused by dehydration. Something like Coca-Cola has lots of sugar and fluids and will put those back into your body to get your energy levels up. The caffeine will also give you an energy boost."
Let us explain: Glycogen is your body's preferred source of energy. So after you've used up most of your available glycogen stores to metabolize all that booze, you need more. As a result, you start to feel hungry.
Although it may be beneficial to eat junk food once a week, make sure that you eat just one such meal throughout the day, or your body might end up stocking all those calories which may end up getting stored as fat.
Well, according to Runner's World, glycogen resynthesis is essentially recovery, and the results of the study suggest that even eating something from a fast food restaurant can be just as effective as using other products that are marketed as being for sports nutrition.
While most fast food restaurants have their Coca-Cola syrup delivered to them in plastic bags, McDonald's gets their syrup specially delivered in stainless steel tanks. The special tanks keep the syrup fresh and protect it from light, temperature, air, and anything else that might take away from its delicious flavor.
Replace with healthier options: If you're craving fast food, try to replace it with healthier options such as a salad, a homemade sandwich, or a smoothie. Plan your meals: Plan your meals ahead of time and include healthy options that you enjoy.
You'll improve your physical health.
Eating foods that are high on sugars, fats, calories and sodium lead to a higher risk of developing hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes, certain types of cancers, obesity, even asthma.
Burgers. Choosing an indulgent, greasy meal like burgers the morning after drinking might sound counterintuitive, but a heavy, fatty meal can help absorb any extra alcohol that may still be in your system.
Chicken Soup
They go straight for the one dish everyone in the world knows is pure magic: chicken soup. Whether it's a cold or a hangover, there is no question that chicken soup can cure just about anything.
Congeners are compounds, other than ethyl alcohol, that are produced during fermentation. These substances contribute to the taste and smell of alcoholic beverages. Darker spirits, such as bourbon, which tend to have higher levels of congeners than clear spirits, could worsen hangover symptoms for some people.
Hangover symptoms tend to ease up over eight to 24 hours. Your body has to clear the toxic byproducts of alcohol, rehydrate, heal tissue and restore functions and activity to normal.
Any food will help, but carbohydrates — like bread, pasta or potatoes — slow down how quickly your body absorbs the alcohol. Eating during or after drinking alcohol may make you feel less intoxicated, but it doesn't mean you've sobered up and are no longer impaired.
Alcohol temporarily keeps your body from burning fat, explains integrative medicine specialist Dr. Pamela M. Peeke, author of the book “The Hunger Fix.” The reason is that your body can't store calories from alcohol for later, the way it does with food calories.