Before You Start Drinking

If you know there is a possibility that you will over-indulge on alcohol one day or evening then you should at least prepare your body.

Protecting Against Dehydration

The main side-effect of drinking too much alcohol is dehydration. Drinking at least 1.5 liters (3 pints) of water in the several days leading up to the big night out (you should be drinking this amount every day as a matter of course) will help your body in two main ways.

Firstly, it will completely hydrate your body in preparation for the alcohol which will increase the rate of fluid loss. Secondly, it will help your body to cleanse by leaving it fully purged and ready to deal with flushing through the alcohol to come.

Protecting Your Liver

The liver is the organ of cleansing and detoxification so, over the next days, you need to keep it fully cleansed and ready for the overtime to come. There are many liver detox tonics that you can make to help prepare your liver. Include plenty of beetroot, black grapes, fresh garlic and garlic pills (odorless are best). Eat carrots or drink carrot juice – you can combine this with other juices but make sure you include plenty of carrot and/or beetroot. Fennel and dandelion tea should also form part of your detox diet for the days preceding a big night out.

Protecting Your Stomach

There are also things you can do to prepare and even ‘line’ your stomach to help the alcohol pass through without too many problems. Blood sugar levels should be maintained and extremes should be avoided. Eat full meals during the day and don’t have your first drink on an empty stomach. Make sure your meals consist of plenty of vegetables, brown rice, salads, fruit, etc. If there is no healthy food available – often the nibbles are dips or fried food or are high in salt to make you drink more – just make sure you eat something, as drinking on a full stomach is much healthier for your stomach and will probably mean you drink less.

During The Evening

You can also take steps throughout the festivities that will help to ensure minimum damage the following day:

When choosing your drink remember that mixing sugar with alcohol – sweet spirits – will speed up the absorption of the alcohol, making you get drunk quicker. For this reason you should avoid spirits and sweet sugary drinks like alcopops or pre-mixed bottled drinks. Sugary drinks will also make you drink more as the sugar high you get will soon fall and you will reach for another drink just to keep your energy up.

Keep your hydration levels up by matching every alcoholic drink with the same amount of water. This doesn’t mean you have to dilute your drinks but it does mean that every other drink could be water. If you think that drinking water is not possible because the host will pressurize you to have a good time then fake it. A sparkling water with ice and lemon in a spirit glass can look like a gin or vodka and tonic and no one need ever know the difference. Barmen are very good at not giving the game away.

You can make a long drink out of white wine by creating a spritzer – more fluid, less alcohol.

Remember how you will feel the next day. Cutting back or stopping when you feel you’ve had enough is the best answer. Even then there is probably still enough alcohol in your system to have done quite enough damage and some that hasn’t even had time to take effect. Stopping when you feel jolly is probably already too late but will at least guarantee a fun evening and a clearer head the next day.

Drink plenty of fluids before you go to bed. Put some fresh lemon juice in your water – this is alkaline-forming and will decrease the acidity of your stomach.

Each time you wake in the night to go to the toilet, make sure you replace what you have lost. Have a glass beside the bed and take six mouthfuls before you drift back off to fitful sleep.

Sweet dreams.