Beer before wine… WON’T be fine – hangovers are just as bad no matter the order

HANGOVERS are just as bad whether you drink beer before wine or vice versa, scientists say.

Cambridge University experts say the popular phrase: “Beer before wine makes you feel fine; wine before beer makes you feel queer” is a myth.

Researchers plied 90 volunteers with booze to see if the order in which they guzzled drinks affected their hangover.

Participants were split into three groups, with the first drinking around two and a half pints of beer followed by four large glasses of white wine.

The second group had the same amount of alcohol but in reverse order and a control group had either only beer or only wine.

The drinkers, several of whom vomited, were asked about their hangover the following day and given a score on an “Acute Hangover Scale”.

This was based on factors including thirst, fatigue, headache, dizziness, nausea, stomach ache, increased heart rate and loss of appetite.

The volunteers, aged between 19 and 40, later repeated the experiment but switched the order of their drinks to allow for further comparison.

Results indicated the hangovers were just as bad whatever order the drinks were consumed in.

The study was a joint project between Cambridge University and Witten/Herdecke University, in Germany.

Joran Kochling, from Witten/Herdecke, said: “Using white wine and lager beer, we didn’t find any truth in the idea that drinking beer before wine gives you a milder hangover than the other way around.

“The truth is that drinking too much of any alcoholic drink is likely to result in a hangover.

“The only reliable way of predicting how miserable you’ll feel the next day is by how drunk you feel and whether you are sick.

“We should all pay attention to these red flags when drinking.”

Dr Kai Hensel, from Cambridge University, said: “Unpleasant as hangovers are, we should remember that they do have one important benefit, at least.

“They are a protective warning sign that will certainly have aided humans over the ages to change their future behaviour.

“In other words, they can help us learn from our mistakes.

“A clear result in favour of one particular order could help to reduce hangovers and help many people have a better day after a night out – though we encourage people to drink responsibly.

“Unfortunately, we found that there was no way to avoid the inevitable hangover just by favouring one order over another.”

The volunteers consumed around 19 units of alcohol, which is above the 14 units a week recommended by health officials.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.