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Hosted by Paul Evans, Registered Nutritionist (@paulthenutritionist)
Tired of the endless food fads, influencer nonsense, and TikTok nutrition “hacks”? This podcast cuts through it all.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of No Forking Nonsense and kids are going back next week, so you've got your life back hopefully. If your kid's been at home has seen you drink more alcohol, then this episode is for you. In fact, summer also sees us often drinking a little bit more alcohol, we've been on holiday, you know, we've had barbecues, we've had friends over, weddings, birthdays, whatever it may be, often we'll end up drinking a bit more in summer and September is always like the other new year isn't it? Like the amount of conversation I have with people and okay, well from September insert whatever's going to happen so it's a good opportunity to kind of get on top of things. This episode however is about how to not be hungover and I know that because I don't get hungover and I do drink alcohol as you'll explore in this episode but there are certain things that you can do to reduce your hangover significantly.
@paulthenutritionist:And also we talk about the benefits of alcohol, the negatives of alcohol and how you can capitalise and get the balance right regarding the benefits and the negatives. If you want to improve your algorithm so that you only get factual, helpful information within the nutrition and health space and in other areas to be honest, engage with this podcast, just follow, subscribe, click something, because what you are doing is you are showing your algorithm this is what you are interested in and you are interested in this more and what you want less of is the opposite, which is unfactual, unhelpful, useless, inconsistent information. Hope you enjoyed this episode and I shall speak to you next time. This is about how to never be young over again. So the first thing to say about alcohol is I m not suggesting that you cut out alcohol, I drink, I m a rugby player so I often will have a couple of Guinness on a Saturday night.
@paulthenutritionist:Have got a good relationship with alcohol. I don't need alcohol, I cut alcohol out for large periods of my life to see if it improves my life and for some people it makes a world of difference, for me I have found it doesn't really. I m not somebody who once I start drinking, I can t stop drinking. I m quite happy having a couple of drinks and then stopping. Equally, I can go on rugby tour and continue drinking and don get hungover because I m a nutritionist and I ve got a cheat code and I m going to share a bit of that cheat code with you today.
@paulthenutritionist:So the first thing to say about alcohol is that you need to know what you are actually drinking. So to help you understand, alcohol has seven grams seven grams seven calories per gram, which is nearly as high as fat but there is absolutely zero nutritional value to alcohol, it suppresses fat burning temporarily, it is a poison, your body is trying to kind of get that alcohol out of your system, it increases hunger and essentially it does pretty much physiologically, impacts every organ in your body. Just as a bit of a kind of rundown, so cocktails are probably the highest in calories because some of them can have like 500 calories, a lot of sugar in there as well. A pint of lager can range from like 180 calories to 150 calories. Wine can be anything from 120 to 150 calories per glass and then spirits plus mixer is anything from 55c to 120c.
@paulthenutritionist:So a huge variation in calories from 55c to 500c. Now, the problem with drinking over the festive period is that often the drinking is paired with overeating, sleep will be impacted because of changes in habits at Christmas and the festive period but equally as alcohol directly negatively impacts sleep. Plus, s a lot of social situations happening and that just creates this kind of energy surplus that we want to get on top of. So if we are going to drink, what we want to do is we want to embed what we call like a pre event nutrition strategy. So the aim is to try and ensure because there s two facets here, there s the over consuming of calories via alcohol, but also as well there s this trying to prevent the fact that it is going to impact your probably in the next twenty four, sometimes forty eight hours.
@paulthenutritionist:Have got clients where if they drink on a Saturday, their weight is up until the Tuesday and it s about ensuring that we have a strategy in place before that so that we re not going in blindly. So the first thing is that you need to make sure that you re eating normally throughout the day and one of the biggest mistakes you can make is by starving yourself to save those extra calories because inevitably it s going to backfire. It will backfire because you re going to get drunk a lot quicker but eat quickly as well, it will guarantee some form of bingeing and fast drinking either the evening of or the next day because your body always remembers, I have said this in the podcast episode before, if you under eat, at some point your body is going to eat back those calories if not a little bit more. So how we do this is we want to ensure that we have protein first meals. So we stabilise our appetite and slow the alcohol absorption, we build our meals and you should be doing the Fenway but we build our meals over around protein.
@paulthenutritionist:The other thing that we want to do is have higher volume foods, so vegetables, fruits, yoghurts, just foods that are super high in volume so that we are giving our stomach something to kind of have so it isn't an empty stomach. But I guess as well the other thing that a lot of people don do is they don t really plan what they are going to be drinking. So it s important to kind of set a limit and it sounds really obvious but you plan your first drink in advance which removes the panic and reduces sober eating. So you know what you can have or you have a strategy. So for me, I have a little bit of a saying where I say always two beers, sometimes three beers, never four beers.
@paulthenutritionist:So if I am going to continue drinking and remember just so you know the psychological and the dopamine and serotonin that s released from alcohol usually tops out at about three alcoholic drinks so that feel good factor if you like, it stops at about three drinks so really there s no massive point in continuing drinking, you re just basically prolonging hangover But if you are to continue drinking, s at that point after three beers that you should be moving on to those lower calorie spirits and mixes and what have you. But set yourself soft in it instead of pretending you re just going to have one. If you know you're going to a party and it's really social and you know you're in the swing of things, if you say I'm just going to have one, it's probably unlikely you're going to do that if you know yourself. If you can't just have one, say to yourself I'm going have three and that s going to
@paulthenutritionist:be me and then I going
@paulthenutritionist:to move on to some perhaps low alcoholic drinks, perhaps I m going to have non alcoholic so I m a Guinness drinker as I say so, I happily have a Guinness syrup, tastes the same, just as good, just to have a break between drinks and I m usually quite happy then. But also really important that you hydrate as much as possible before leaving the house. If you re dehydrated when you start drinking, you re done. So strategies around this, get yourself some electrolytes, have a couple of electrolyte tablets beforehand. You re not going to probably be taking electrolytes really but when you get back and we talk about kind of when we get home in a second but you want to make sure you ve got electrolytes to hand to stop yourself having a horrendous headache the next day.
@paulthenutritionist:So when we are drinking, so during drinking, one of the simplest strategies is to try and alternate every drink with a soft drink. There s that thing where it like one alcoholic drink and one water, you re not going to be walking around with water so let s be smarter here. If you re out for the long haul, so let s say you re on a big night out, then I would suggest going through my rule of one, I would probably have one Guinness, maybe two Guinness, then a soft drink and then maybe another Guinness and then move on to some spirits. Now the beauty of having vodka, lime and soda is that once you re done, you can probably move on to just soda and lime just to make sure that you are rehydrating yourself. But sticking to clear spirits with zero calorie mixes, if fat loss is a focus, is really going to help you as well because those additional calories just give us nothing but a beer belly.
@paulthenutritionist:Avoid cocktails unless you are very, very aware of the calorie cost. So as I said, some of these cocktails can be 500 I ve seen cocktails at like 800 calories, which is absolutely insane. But also don t let the buffet blackout happen. So if there is food available to you whilst you re drinking, just be mindful of that and pick one plate, sit down, eat mindfully then stop. The one plate rule is something that s really essential around buffets and socially and so you just grab one plate, stick to that one plate and move on and decide in advance what your food plan is going to be post event and that avoids this one am going to a takeaway or whatever.
@paulthenutritionist:So what I tend to do is I know that when I come home and this usually happens on a rugby day because obviously if you play rugby then and although I carbulate, what happens is kick off is usually either at 02:00 or 03:00, so what happens is I m essentially missing a window for lunch, then I have some food post rugby and then I might have a couple of drinks and then I m absolutely starving. So I know what I am having for dinner and sometimes if I am out, properly out, my idea is I know what I am going to be having when I come home and I will have something like peanut butter on a bagel or just something that I am going to be looking forward to. I mean I m not really a takeaway person but it will prevent me wasting money and loads of calories going to a takeaway. Hangovers actually happen because of the following reasons. So the first one that you probably know is dehydration causes a hangover.
@paulthenutritionist:The other thing is that there s a thing called acetaldehyde, which is a build up from the alcohol breakdown, electrolyte loss, low blood sugars, poor sleep quality, really impact your sleep and inflammation response. And all of these things cause you to feel like shit the next day. And Christmas drinks as well, again, we're keeping it kind of festive, tend to be higher in sugar which makes your symptoms worse and this kind of blood sugar is being impacted. So there are things that actually help when it comes to preventing a hangover. What we want to do before I kind of go into this is to be mindful that alcohol is going to impact you the next day.
@paulthenutritionist:So your sleep will be impacted. A lot of people will
@paulthenutritionist:be like nah, I have
@paulthenutritionist:an alcoholic drink, I remember listening to someone, I can't remember whether it was someone I knew or I just heard somebody say oh I drink alcohol because it helps me sleep, it doesn't. What happens is it will knock you out but you will see quality if you have got a fitness watch, you will see quality will put you on your ass. So it's super important that we don think that alcohol is going to help sleep. Your sleep s impacted and then the next day your energy is really low because your seat s been so poor and you end up craving certain types of food, usually hyper palatable foods because your body is literally trying to drag your ass through the day. So I have a really hard rule that if I m drinking, then the next day I m going to the gym and I m going to be functioning as much as possible.
@paulthenutritionist:What I will never do is turn. It s the bargain that I ve made. If I m going out to drink, it means the next day has to be focused. Sitting on the sofa all day, like slobbing around eating crisps is just going to make you feel worse the following two days so and it will make you feel really unproductive as well which is what we don t want. Your mood is going be impacted so you want to do stuff which is to make you feel good.
@paulthenutritionist:Things that actually help with regards to hangover prevention are eating a balanced protein rich meal before drinking, as I said, eat a decent meal before drinking so that you have something in your stomach. Ideally, sipping soft drinks water throughout the event is really going to help because as I say alcohol dehydrates you, so you want to replenish those. Slow down your drinking pace, right? So this is an absolute no brainer. If you drink really quickly, you will be more hungover the next day.
@paulthenutritionist:So try just to slow your drinking pace by either swapping out soft drinks for alcoholic drinks or just engage socially in there so drink a bit. Stick to the same type of alcohol where you can, so you know don t try and mix all your drinks because again that fucks with your body and you end up more hungover the next day. Try and avoid the kind of sweetened mixes and creamy Christmas drinks if you want to reduce those symptoms and as I say like one of these things we re going to talk about supplements that help but taking electrolytes before bed and first thing in the morning and before you drink is really going to help you as well. So there are some supplements that can help reduce her handover and I kind of like take these and it really does help. So obviously electrolytes.
@paulthenutritionist:Let s say you ve got a Christmas party at 07:00 this evening. Bosch, two electrolyte tablets before going out. Also have a vitamin B complex or like vitamin C and zinc just to kind of give your immune system a bit of a head start. I would strongly recommend getting some NAC which stands for N Acetylcysteine I think it stands for, which will help reduce that acetic alkali build up if it s taken before drinking. Take those send me a message if you re unsure and I send you a link but if you take those before drinking, I can tell you categorically that s going to help.
@paulthenutritionist:Before bed, I would take some magnesium for sleep support because your sleep s going to be impacted and then probably more NAC. If you are someone who finds yourself feeling sick in the morning, I d get some ginger or some turmeric for the nauseous first thing and then omega-three for inflammation. None of these are going to replace responsible drinking, But those can help. If you re unsure out of all of those which to take, I would prioritise taking electrolytes before drinking, after drinking, morning after drinking. I would take magnesium before bed, magnesium, depends on I was going give you a concern but depends on how heavy you are and NAC before drinking and probably when you come home.
@paulthenutritionist:The morning after is really important because we want to ensure that we don t derail our week as we say. So the first thing that you have to have in your mind is what are you going to do that s proactive because you are not allowed to have a day slobbing on the sofa after you are drinking. Get off your arse, you fucking put yourself in this state So get to the gym, get outside, get walking, be productive. Do not sit on your arse today because you re going to feel like shit for the week. So hydrate as soon as possible with your electrolytes, eat a normal breakfast with protein and carbohydrates and maybe some fats as well.
@paulthenutritionist:Avoid this kind of weird thing where it s like a greasy hangover is what I need. No, no, no, s a complete myth. S going to make your symptoms worse. Prioritise movement. As I said, a walk is going to help clear that lactate it s going to reduce inflammation, which is why I always go to the gym.
@paulthenutritionist:And I don go men sitting, I just want to get moving. Ideally, if you got access to a sauna or a steam room, another good opportunity to go in there and just sweat the last bit of those toxins out. Do not starve yourself the next day because what s going happen, as I said, is your body is going to remember and in two days, three days, a week s time, re going to end up bingeing whether you like it or not. Try and get daylight in as early as possible. So get to bed early that following day.
@paulthenutritionist:If go on on a Saturday, Sunday, get to bed early, reset quickly as much as possible and just try and almost like avoid in your mind be like I am not hungover, I m going straight into a productive day and that s going to help you kind of move on from this feeling like shit, low mood, feeling sloppy, sluggish, disgusting. So a really simple December survival framework if you like is pick your events, not every night needs to be a complete blowout, if you ve three Christmas parties perhaps, test yourself, challenge yourself and don t drink one night. I know shocking but if you re someone who says I need alcohol to have a good time, then that is a problem. So pick the events that you are going to drink, plan your drinks ahead of time, I. E.
@paulthenutritionist:How many are going have, what are you going to be drinking, eat well on days around those big nights so you are not cutting all this food out and leaving yourself unable to stomach. Train as normal, so don't burn off alcohol but you want to make sure you're as active as possible certainly the day after and stay mindful of it. So I don't want you to be really restrictive, just want you be really mindful of what you're doing before drinking, during drinking, after drinking. So in terms of, as I say, Christmas, you re not trying to probably be an expert at fat loss during December, you can be, but it s about trying to ensure that we re managing everything that s happening in this kind of festive period. You re trying to, I guess, not undo the last six months which is the aim here.
@paulthenutritionist:What is the most biggest frustration for me as I said in the previous podcast is that Christmas everyone goes, oh, it s December, ve deserved it, you ve deserved share. Like you re not a dog, you don need to deflect, you know, four whole weeks of just over eating and over drinking because in January, you going have a lot more work to swallow and it's colder, it's wetter, it's darker, it's more depressing because there's less to look forward to and trust me, it's harder, which is why every January when you say right, new year, need me, two weeks later, you're back to it. Dry January, most people fail after two weeks because they get bored and they just want some feelings. It s a depressing statement but it true. Enjoy Christmas, be intentional and avoid this all or nothing thinking And as I say, January will hit very differently when you re not feeling like you ve just completely written off the last four weeks of your life.
@paulthenutritionist:So I really hope that that has given you some insight about how we can drink and not get hungover in a complete write off but as I say, the main aim is to ensure that we are measured, we consider what we are doing, we are consistent with what we are doing and that we are not going in blindly and we certainly don t drink on an empty stomach and we have strategies pre drinking, during drinking and after drinking. I have an alcohol guide, if you want that alcohol guide, message me PaulTheNutritionist and I will send that to you. If you have any questions, message me and I will send you any kind of clarification on this. Other than that, enjoy going out, I think there are some benefits to drinking like it can be a social lubricant. I ve had many good conversations with people after a couple of drinks but if you have a problem and you feel like you can t stop drinking, then you probably shouldn t be drinking.
@paulthenutritionist:Remember it doesn't help you sleep, it will make you feel like shit no matter what. It does impact you negatively but the benefits of drinking usually stop after three drinks, so remember that. I hope you found that episode super useful and you're feeling confident that when you next drink, how to avoid feeling like a potato the next day. Remember if you want to improve your algorithm to teach it that you're interested in facts and you're interested in information from experts, follow, subscribe to this podcast and you will show not just your Instagram on here where you are listening, but your social media algorithms that this is the information that you want more of. That's all you have to see, never have to listen to this again, but if you do that and you engage with the right information, like on my Instagram pauldenutritionist, like this podcast, you will teach your algorithm that's what you want more of.
@paulthenutritionist:Hope you found this super useful, download the free Ultimate Shopping List guide below, say Ultimate Shopping List. I went to every supermarket in the whole of The UK and I unpicked what is actually healthy in terms of higher protein, higher fibre, maybe a bit lower calorie in every supermarket and I created a guide and it s yours for free. Click it below, it really going to help you. Chat Wednesday. Cheerio.