Along with the dreaded hangover the morning after a great party, comes the undertaking that next time you would follow the advice that has been passed on from generation to generation:
“Beer before wine and you’ll feel fine; wine before beer and you’ll feel queer.”
One often wonders how much truth there is in such folklore, but trust the inquisitive minds at a university to do a scientific study to find out whether this old folk wisdom is indeed fact, or fiction!
The study:
The Witten/Herdecke University in Witten, Germany, took the initiative to “investigate the influence of the combination and order of beer and wine consumption on hangover intensity.”
Of course there were no shortage of volunteers who wanted to participate in the study! However, a wide range of exclusion criteria, such as health and medical conditions, certain genetic factors as well as a history of drug and alcohol abuse, narrowed the numbers down. Inclusion criteria, amongst others, included a positive history of beer and wine consumption, good physical fitness, comparable BMI, weight and height, as well as the availability of two matching partners in order to form a matching triplet for inclusion in each of the three groups in the study. At the end a group of 90 participants were selected, between 19 and 40 years old, with equal numbers of male and female participants.
On Day One of the trial, Study Group One (31 participants) drank bear (a premium Pilsener lager) until regular breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) showed a reading of 0,05%, when they switched to wine (a quality white wine) until a BrAc reading of 0,11%. At the same time Study Group Two (31) drank wine until a BrAC reading of 0,05% and then switched to beer until a reading of 0,11%. Study Group Three (28) had participants either drinking only wine or only beer until the 0,11% reading.
Day Two of the trial occurred a week later, with participants in Study Groups One and Two drinking in the reverse order of day One. Participants in Study Group Three who drank only wine on Day One had to switch to beer for Day Two and vice versa.
The primary endpoint was the reported hangover severity on the day following each intervention. On the days following the Day One and Day Two interventions, once BrAC readings returned to normal levels (0,0%), the participants had to complete an Acute Hangover Scale questionnaire. Hangover severity was scored according to an 8-item compound score that covered thirst, fatigue, headache, dizziness, nausea, stomach ache, tachycardia, and loss of appetite. Each item was rated between 0 and 7 (severe symptoms) by the individual participants.
The following image from the study indicates the interventions that took place. Please note that AHS stands for Acute Hangover Scale.
Findings:
The traditional old folk wisdom that drinking beer before wine would reduce hangover symptoms – was found to be truly just a myth!
If you think you can reduce the aftereffects of heavy drinking by the careful ordering of beverages, think again. None of the participants in the three groups indicated significantly different Acute Hangover Scale ratings with different orders of the two beverages.
Participants in the control group who drank only wine have reached the BrAC limit considerably earlier than any of the other groups. One have to bear in mind that the alcohol content of the lager beer that was used is 5%, while the alcohol content of the white wine is 11.1%.
The study also did not find differences in hangover severity between males and females.
The findings suggest that perceived drunkenness and vomiting while partying are more useful predictors of the severity of a hangover.
Sources:
Grape or grain but never the twain? A randomized controlled multiarm matched-triplet crossover trial of beer and wine. Published February 2019 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 109, Issue 2, February 2019, Pages 345–352. (www.academic.oup.com)
Beer-before-wine strategy doesn’t hold water. Published May 2019 in the Harvard Health Letter. Harvard Medical School. (www.health.harvard.edu)
HEALTH INSIGHT
May 2019