Three Tips to Help You Avoid a Hangover

1. Avoid Drinking on an Empty Stomach

Drinking on an empty stomach causes blood alcohol levels to spike within about an hour, making you intoxicated much faster and reducing your alcohol tolerance.

2. Eat High-Fat Foods Before Drinking

Consuming fatty foods before drinking can slow down alcohol absorption, allowing your body’s enzymes to metabolize the alcohol at a more manageable rate. If too much alcohol enters your system too quickly and your body lacks enough enzymes to break it down, the liver’s metabolism slows down, making you more likely to get drunk.

3. Drink Plenty of Water While Drinking

Staying hydrated can help dilute alcohol and reduce its effects.

Additionally, your body fat percentage affects your alcohol tolerance. The higher your body fat percentage, the better your alcohol tolerance because alcohol does not dissolve in fat. Imagine muscle and body tissues as highways and alcohol as cars—if the highway has more roadblocks (fat), the cars (alcohol) take longer to reach their destination (the brain).

This is also why some women can drink more than men because women naturally have a higher body fat percentage than men, making them more resistant to alcohol.

Author: Angel Soh (Dietitian in Dietitian Mate Consultancy & AMODS)