Conscious Choice Seattle: Holiday Hangovers

December 2005 | Clean Living

Holiday Hangovers

By Rebecca Ephraim, RD, CCN

We’re all familiar with hangovers from alcohol, but what about hangovers from food? A liquor hangover is the toxic by-product of wine, beer or the hard stuff, which poisons our bodies, causing headaches, body aches and nausea. Food hangovers are generally not as intense, but if you’ve been out for a night of festive food swimming in butter and cream, fried to a crisp and steeped in sugar, you might be familiar with them. Trying to sleep is miserable as your stomach gurgles and churns and the following day brings with it fatigue, bloating and perhaps diarrhea and headache.

Abundant amounts of rich food and drink are the hallmark of December through New Year’s. Holiday goodies and hors d’oeuvres are laden with either heavy hits of fat or sugar that can cause havoc with our stomachs. We get in trouble when we show up hungry and thirsty to festive gatherings and immediately visit the bar. Lubricated with a cocktail or two, we’re usually ready to ingest any food within our grazing path. Better to first scope out the food and decide on the best choices. Those little deep fried hot dogs rolled in bacon and the mini butter crackers smeared with a three-cheese whipped spread? Noooo. Remember the less processed the food, the fewer antagonizing ingredients it will contain. For instance, better choices might be fresh shrimp or smoked salmon on cocktail rye bread; nuts are a healthy choice as are raw veggies.

Routinely, everyone at a party is served the same main course, which makes it nearly impossible to control what ends up on our plates. If I know I’ll be eating a catered meal, I call ahead to order a “special meal.”

As for desserts, how can we not? Actually, the best time to eat dessert is after a meal when we have a full complement of protein and fat in our digestive tract. A blast of sugar at this point will be churned in with the other foods and will slow down the absorption rate of the sugar.

Choosing desserts is tricky. Avoid pastries, as lots of shortening and white flour go into the crusts; other desserts with flour can be irritating to people who have a wheat or gluten sensitivity. Cheesecake, with its heavy cream, sour cream, cream cheese etc., can do a number on many sensitive stomachs. Instead, steer toward desserts such as flourless chocolate cake, which has no flour, some butter and a lot of eggs; or pecan pie, which usually has a little butter and some eggs. Obviously a fruit plate would be best of all. But c’mon, it’s the holidays!

If all else fails and some disagreeable food gets past your lips to torment your stomach, you might want some digestive support. Indigestion is commonly treated with antacids and acid blockers that make the stomach less acidic. But most nutrition-oriented physicians believe that a lack of acid, not excess, is the true cause of indigestion. Hence, digestive enzymes that digest fat, protein and carbohydrate are available as supplements (brands include Enzymatic Therapy, Flora, New Roots and Natural Factors) and can be taken during a meal or onset of indigestion.

And what about alcohol? There are a number of natural hangover preventatives on the market. The combination of L-cysteine (an amino acid) and vitamin C seems to get good results...the recommended dosage is one or two before you start drinking, one with each drink and one when you’re done. The L-cysteine keeps the toxic by-product of alcohol, acetaldehyde, from building up and the vitamin C keeps the cysteine working. Examples include Genuine Health’s Age Inhibitors, Nu-Life’s Defense and Prairie Naturals’ Antiox-Force.

Of course, in offering these tips it’s assumed you’re going into the holiday season in fairly good health. If not, now is the time to re-assess what you’re eating and drinking and make a fresh go of it in the New Year!

Rebecca Ephraim is a registered dietitian and certified clinical nutritionist.

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