Beer, Wine and Hangovers

 

"Beer before wine and you'll be just fine" is a bit of folk wisdom that comes from a much older saying. "Grape or grain but never the twain" has advised imbibers not to mix the two at all for hundreds of years. But does either bit of advice hold any value on the morning after the night before? A 2019 study done in Germany and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that while the folk wisdom may indeed be folksy, it is also incorrect.

For the study, 90 participants ages 19 to 40 were randomly split into three groups. The first group consumed 2.5 pints of cold lager beer followed by four large glasses of chilled white wine. The second group consumed the same amount of alcohol, but in reverse. The third group, the “control group,” drank only wine or only beer. They were then given a glass of chilled water and sent to bed at the study facility. Researchers supervised them during their sleep.

The researchers found no significant differences in hangover scores among the three groups. No matter their drinking order, participants reported similar hangover scores.

“Using white wine and lager beer, we didn’t find any truth in the idea that drinking beer before wine gives you a milder hangover than the other way around,” said Jöran Köchling, the study’s first author and a researcher at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. “The truth is that drinking too much of any alcoholic drink is likely to result in a hangover.”

Want to have a milder hangover? Drink less the night before. Ideally, drink an 8oz glass of water for every alcoholic drink you put away.