Beer before wine? Wine before beer?

Apparently, this is an important question for people hoping to avoid hangovers — at least, it was important enough that researchers have published a study about it. And we may now have an answer. Researchers enrolled 90 adults between the ages of 19 and 40, randomly assigning them to one of three groups: Group 1 drank beer until their breath alcohol level was at least .05%, then drank wine until it was at least .11%. That’s well over the limit of what can get you charged with drunk driving in the US. Group 2 drank wine until their breath alcohol level was at least .05%, then drank beer until it was at least .11% Group 3 was allowed to drink either only wine or only beer until their breath alcohol level was at least .11% After a week or so, the experiment was repeated. This time, though, members of Groups 1 and 2 swapped, so that the order of the wine or beer they drank was reversed from the initial assignment. For Group 3, wine drinkers were provided only beer and vice versa. The groups were similar with respect to gender, body size, drinking habits, and frequency of hangovers. Hangover symptoms were assessed after each drinking session. What did the researchers expect to find? According to a commonly quoted saying, “beer before wine and you’ll feel fine.” There are a number of theories about why this should be true: one popular one is that if you start with wine and then drink beer, the carbonation in beer makes you more easily or quickly absorb alcohol from ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Alcohol Behavioral Health Folk remedies Men's Health Women's Health Source Type: blogs