Avoid a hangover? Drink vodka

Spirits come in a small glass, lighter drinks in a larger glass, so your hangover depends solely on the number of glasses you consume, not on the type of drink you drink. Sounds logical, right? Unfortunately, it’s not true.

One drink really does give you a worse hangover than another, even if you drink less of it. The rule of thumb? The darker the alcohol, the worse the hangover.

The fermentation process creates chemical substances: congeners. These substances give dark drinks such as red wine, cognac and whisky their distinctive flavours, but they’re also responsible for nasty hangovers.

Experiment

How big is the difference? Pretty big. In 1970, this was proven in a scientific experiment. Test subjects were made drunk with whisky or vodka. Of the whisky drinkers, 33% got a severe hangover, while only 3% of the vodka drinkers did. Quite a difference.

This resulted in the following ranking of distilled drinks (ha!): cognac, red wine, rum, whisky, white wine, genever, vodka and pure alcohol.

Vodka soda

The ideal drink would be a vodka soda. Make sure to choose quality vodka such as Grey Goose or Belvedere. They have undergone a more intensive filtration process than their cheaper alternatives.

If you’re thinking: ‘Great! Gin and tonic is just as transparent, so bring on that IV drip,’ then I have bad news for you: sugar also gives you terrible hangovers. Kriek is therefore also ‘more dangerous’ than you might think. And have we mentioned bubbles? Unfortunately, those are also silent killers.

Solution

Incidentally, the number of drinks needed to cause a hangover differs from person to person. But on average, a woman weighing 60 kilos gets a hangover after three to five drinks, while an 80-kilo man only gets one after five or six. The safest solution: don’t drink alcohol. Guaranteed success – at least the next morning.