How are you feeling today? A little groggy? Nauseous? Have you promised yourself that you\u2019ll never drink again? If that sounds familiar, then you\u2019re probably here hunting for hangover cures. Two popular folk remedies that pretend to have some scientific backing are Pedialyte and Gatorade. Let\u2019s see if they actually work.
While just about everyone who has ever had a sip of alcohol has their own hangover cure, from \u201chair of the dog\u201d to greasy foods , few recommendations are as common as chugging Gatorade or Pedialyte. The idea is simple: if drinking dehydrates you, then drinking a beverage designed to counter dehydration should make you feel better. Let\u2019s take a quick look at both options:
Let\u2019s take a closer look at both options to see if either can help you get over that pounding headache.
While we\u2019re still not exactly certain what about alcohol causes hangovers specifically, we do know what happens in your body after the fact. After a night of drinking, the body releases acetaldehyde and cytokines , two causes for nausea or headaches. Your liver also gets overworked in an attempt to process all that alcohol. Dehydration is another effect of a hangover, which happens because alcohol is a diuretic and makes you pee more.
Gatorade and Pedialyte are supposedly a good cure for the dehydration portion of your hangover because they\u2019re packed with electrolytes. Electrolytes help you retain more water and pee less, which is good for fast rehydration. Before we get there, let\u2019s look at the nutrition numbers on both Gatorade and Pedialyte:
In theory, all these electrolytes should help with the headache part of your hangover, and since Pedialyte has more electrolytes, it sounds like better option. Dehydration is just one part of your hangover though, so curing that won\u2019t \u201ccure\u201d your hangover as a whole. To that point, The Atlantic spoke with kidney doctor and medical school professor Stanley Goldfarb and Amy Hess-Fischl , nutrition specialist at the University of Chicago:
Regardless of how big of a role hydration plays in the power of a hangover, we know dehydration causes the brain to contract, and that could be one of the minor causes of your headache. The best counter to that is hydration, which is especially necessary if you\u2019ve spent the night (or morning) throwing up.
There\u2019s at least a theoretical grain of truth in the idea that both Pedialyte and Gatorade provide a slight hydration improvement over regular old water , in which case Pedialyte would theoretically outdo Gatorade.
While taste is subjective, there\u2019s no denying that Gatorade wins out in the number of options available. Gatorade has 29 flavors of its \u201cThirst Quencher\u201d drink. It also has eight low-calorie flavors , and four flavors of a powder mix you can add to water. You can find a 32oz Gatorade at a local convenience or grocery store for $1-$2, or get larger packs, like eight, 20oz bottles, for about $6.
Pedialyte comes in five main flavors: mixed fruit, strawberry, grape, bubble gum, and unflavored, though they all taste like lightly flavored chalk dust. Those same flavors also come in freezer pops and powder packs. One, 33.8oz container of Pedialyte retails for about $5. Pedialyte is also a bit harder to find than Gatorade and you\u2019ll need to venture into a grocery store or pharmacy for a bottle instead of the local convenience store.
Gatorade is the cheaper, easier to find option of the two. Gatorade doesn\u2019t have as many electrolytes per bottle as Pedialyte, but it\u2019s so much cheaper. The number of flavor options means it\u2019s more likely you\u2019ll drink more Gatorade, which is all that matters. If money\u2019s not an issue, just go with whichever you like the taste of more.
We don\u2019t know if either Gatorade or Pedialyte is better than plain old water. We do know that hydration is one small factor of getting over a hangover, so drinking anything will help, but it won\u2019t \u201ccure\u201d a hangover completely. Plus, water is much cheaper.
Drink whatever tastes good and whatever you can keep down in your sorry state. Better yet, create a time machine, go back to last night, and drink water in-between each alcoholic drink.
Photo by Mike Mozart and Enid Martindale .<\/p>\n