Hangover Alert
Darker Colored Alcohol Makes You Feel Worse

If you’ve always thought that red wine leaves you feeling worse the morning after than white, then you were right – and scientists have proved it.

A study has found the severity of a hangover is affected by the colour of the alcohol being drunk, with darker drinks the worst offenders. So over-indulging on richly toned whisky will mean more of a headache than too many vodkas.

However, researchers at Brown University, New England, found that those who drank white wine or vodka – even if they felt better – performed just as badly at work the next morning as those suffering because of whisky or red wine.

The study, to be published in the journal Alcohol: Clinical And Experimental Research, concluded that dark drinks contained more chemical by-products than lighter ones.

Bourbon – an American whisky – had 37 times more chemicals than vodka. These included the solvent acetone, oils and tannin. The harmful by products, called congeners, are part of the reason people feel sick after a night of heavy drinking.

Professor Damaris Rohsenow, of Brown University, said: ‘While the alcohol alone is enough to make many people feel sick the next day, these toxic natural substances can add to the ill effects as our body reacts to them.’

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December 31, 2009

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