After a night of drinking, many people turn to comforting foods to settle their stomachs.
While traditional hangover remedies like soups—such as bean sprout soup and fish cake soup—remain popular, younger generations, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, gravitate toward unconventional options like burgers and chocolate milk. But be cautious: greasy, high-calorie foods can put extra stress on your liver and stomach, potentially making things worse.
The cause of a hangover is acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct produced during the body’s breakdown of alcohol. This substance is created when the liver’s alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) processes alcohol, and it can cause symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. Excessive drinking can overwhelm the liver’s detoxification abilities, leading to the accumulation of toxins. To alleviate a hangover, it’s important to help your body eliminate acetaldehyde as quickly as possible.
Certain foods can help with this process. For example, aspartic acid in bean sprouts helps remove toxins, while vitamin C aids in the fast breakdown of alcohol. Dried pollack contains methionine and lysine, which have liver-protective effects. However, some foods might do more harm than good. Ramen, for example, is spicy and salty, which can put additional strain on your stomach and liver. Plus, the synthetic seasonings and additives often used in ramen can worsen the burden. As for burgers, while tomatoes in the burger provide lycopene to help with acetaldehyde elimination, the greasy nature of burgers requires a lot of stomach acid to digest, and their high sodium content can lead to dehydration.
Despite their potential downsides, burgers are increasingly popular hangover remedies, especially among younger crowds. Their accessibility, convenience, and affordability make them an appealing choice. In fact, according to data from Data Marketing Korea, burgers were the most searched hangover food between December 2021 and December 2022, followed by bean sprout soup, ramen, jjambbong (spicy seafood noodle soup), and spicy pollock soup.
Many burger chains are open 24 hours or early in the morning, allowing customers to grab a meal, even during odd hours, quickly. The growth of delivery services, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has made it easier to enjoy these foods from the comfort of home. Rising living costs have also made affordable options like burgers even more appealing to consumers.
While sometimes considered a hangover remedy, chocolate milk isn’t the best choice. Though the cacao in chocolate milk can assist in breaking down acetaldehyde, the low cacao content in most store-bought versions makes it less effective. Moreover, drinking milk can increase stomach acid, potentially irritating your stomach and interfering with hangover relief.
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