Style Bites: A mild Sunday feast for hellacious hangover remedies

Sun, 01/04/2009 10:01 AM  |  Lifestyle

"Wakie wakie, eggs and bacie!" I remember hearing my flat mate greet me one sunny morning, as I lay on the bathroom floor under the toilet bowl, back then in my college daze.

As you may have guessed, that particular greeting sounds much better and more refreshing if you hear it without a drilling machine working inside your head and you know for sure that the cool refreshing feeling on your cheek is the bathroom tile and not your vomit from five hours ago. I suspect that on this special Sunday, that some of you might be in this situation after a long and wild night out celebrating New Year's Eve.

So, are you dragging yourself out of your bedroom now, with your make up still smudged on? Do you see yourself in the mirror think there must have been a smoking bird nesting and in your hair last night, but somehow you don't remember?

Well feel shame no more, there were plenty of good reasons to party all the way from last Wednesday evening until last night (depends on how hard core you are). 2009 will bring quite a few stiff restrictions, so it's good to let yourself loose before you're 'squared' into the new pornography law, new fiscal rates, a new earlier schedule to drop your kids to school and the new un-affordable price of alcohol.

Is your tongue burning dry, do you have a second heartbeat in your head and are feeling much less fabulous than you did last night? Attempting to sleep, shower, drink plenty of water and take paracetamol don't seem to work, so now what? No matter what you took, your body needs to clean up all the toxic waste left over from the alcohol.

The only sure cure for a hangover is time, but you can help speed up the process by starting to refill the vitamins and liquid you lost over night by trying some of the following life-saving remedies.

Firstly, don't you dare to touch that coffee! Normally it might be the first thing you reach for, but caffeine will continue to dehydrate you and make your hangover worse in the end. Fill up your body with water and never mind the extra trips to the loo, its better to clean out the leftover byproducts from your stomach.

As an ex "professional drinker" I would suggest you perform a prevention act (if your brain still works when you reach home after your night out) by drinking a few glasses of water before going to bed, as it helps fight dehydration after the body finishes breaking down the alcohol.

And leave alone whatever anti-dizzy medicine you have on your drug cabinet, as these drugs can cause more damage to your liver.

Nothing comes magically or clinically easy when you have to deal with the after fun effects. But anyhow, you can make the cure more creative, and it will be better exercise for your lazy brain too! Since you've consumed a generous portion of sinful liquid, let your Sunday feast be more *modest' and get to know fact from fiction of the hangover remedies you may heard before.

Many people say eating greasy foods can overcome your "restlessness" right away. Fatty food indeed is very comforting for dizzy mind, but it will actually only irritate your stomach even more as it will stick to the stomach lining longer.

Opting for any kind of eggs is a wiser choice. Eggs can potentially help mop up the left-over toxins with a high content of cysteine, the substance that breaks down the hangover-causing toxin in the liver. So scramble, benedict, poach, or boil; sprinkle on some chopped onion, tomato, capsicum, and bacon to spice it up nicely.

Eating bananas provides lost electrolytes and specifically replenishes the potassium lost to alcohol's diuretic effect. Bananas are also high in magnesium, which will help to reduce those pounding headaches by relaxing your blood vessels.

Ordering a banana split would be quite a heavenly idea, but if you want to go for a healthier option, fill up your blender with chopped banana, milk, honey and ice cubes and let it spin to wash away your hangover -- yummy.

Drink a Bloody Mary, while your blood is dealing with the new alcohol it is ignoring the old and in the mean time tomato juice and celery are full of vitamins.

Or you can go for the milder Virgin Mary (a non-alcoholic Bloody Mary). But if these thick, red drinks are rather upsetting to look at, The Hair of the Dog cocktail is a great alternative that serves the same purpose: a little bit of alcohol, sour citrus and a hot digestive aid to calm the stomach. Mix six ounces of Gin with a half an ounce of fresh lemon juice and two to three dashes Tabasco sauce into an ice filled cocktail shaker, and shake generously. Strain into a chilled glass and garnish with a chili pepper.

Last but not least, fruits and juice that are rich in vitamins C and B such as kiwi and oranges work well, as do sports drinks.

Hmm, all this food and cocktail talking suddenly makes me feel so hungry. As I didn't party that hard due to my *been there done that' status, I think I'm up for a big Sunday brunch today.

It might not be your cup of *drunken tea', but it's definitely mine!

Hope you survive your day, and Happy New Year 2009 everyone!

--Diaz

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