The Hangover Foods That Will Truly Make You Feel Better

The first foods that you allow to enter your stomach the morning after drinking alcohol can either cure your hangover entirely, or absolutely wreck your gastrointestinal tract. Or, at least that's how it can feel sometimes. So, you have to be strategic about what your morning hangover meal is, as well as your last meal before going out that night.

Some foods are just better at "soaking up" alcohol, while others contain important nutrients that can act as a buffer for brutal hangover symptoms. Understanding the complicated effects that alcohol has on your body can help you better prepare for your next night out, so you feel less like garbage the next day.

For a quick refresher, you're going to want to eat a well-balanced meal containing carbohydrates, fats, and protein before a night of drinking, says Melissa Bailey, MS, RD, LDN, a clinical dietitian in Philadelphia. "This gives you the variety of vitamins and minerals you need, especially B vitamins, since alcohol depletes those," she says. Fats and proteins will help slow alcohol's absorption into your bloodstream, she says. And of course, you have to drink at least one glass of water per alcoholic drink to prevent dehydration.

If you didn't do any of that, it's okay. Here are the foods and meals to turn do to help reduce the brutal symptoms of a hangover.