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Mar 25, 2021 · Drinking alcohol really can make you hungrier, according to a 2017 study conducted by the Francis Crick Institute in the UK. It may be why that glass of red wine or vodka soda often causes you to crave munchies. The two-year investigation, published in Nature Communications, looked at how ethanol alcohol affects the body, brain, and actions of ...
- Binge Drinking
What really happens to your body during and after a bender?...
- Binge Drinking
Jan 11, 2017 · The desire to eat a greasy kebab at 3am when drunk, can often be overwhelming and seem like a terrible idea in the cold, hungover, light of day. There may, however, be a scientific reason for you ...
Dec 14, 2020 · This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer. If you’ve never gotten fast food after leaving a bar late at night (or, more correctly, early in the morning) I’d highly recommend it. I’ve never been sure if it’s the intoxication, the tiredness, or the unusual hour that makes post-pub falafel taste like heaven, but somehow after I go out drinking with my lab mates the food ...
- Overview
- What causes the ‘drunchies’?
- How to avoid the ‘drunchies’
Why do you suddenly feel like you’re starving when you’re drunk? Blame it on your brain.
You know the drill: You’ve been good all week, hitting the gym and watching what you eat. So you accept that happy hour invitation from your co-workers to have a few cocktails on Friday night without any guilt.
However, as the night is ending, it hits you: that ravenous hunger that only comes out after you’ve had a few adult beverages — the drunk munchies, aka the “drunchies.”
As Urban Dictionary defines them, the drunk munchies are “The craving to consume mass quantities of absorbents after a session of moderate to heavy drinking. The effects are twofold: slowing down the rate of alcohol being introduced into the bloodstream, and depleting the amount of easily/already prepared food in one’s kitchen.”
Goodbye, cold fried chicken and leftover pizza. You never stood a chance.
When a person has the “drunchies,” the foods they eat are often high in fat, salt, and carbohydrates. Fried foods like French fries and potato or tortilla chips are typically at the top of the list.
A study published last year in Nature sought to help explain why after drinking alcohol — a calorie-dense substance — the brain still thinks it needs food.
Examining the brains of mice, they found that Agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons — special neurons in the front of the brain that deal with hunger and other functions — are activated during intoxication.
In other words, your brain, while under the influence, thinks it’s starving.
Dr. Chirag Shah, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and medical reviewer for PollMed, says the study might help explain why humans get hungry after drinking alcohol.
He advises that drinkers do a little pre-party planning, namely by not keeping “temptation foods” around.
“It’s much harder to eat something that is not easily accessible,” Shah told Healthline. “Keep healthy snacks around as a substitute. If you do end up eating something, at least give yourself the option of eating something that might not be as unhealthy.”
While taking Dr. Shah’s advice about keeping healthier snacks around is a good first step, Dixon says if you truly don’t want to blow a week of good choices with margaritas and a Chalupa Cravings Box, you have to keep your brain trained on the long term because the “drunchies” will make you go for the things you typically avoid with intention.
“For many people, when they are not drinking, they are focused on their longer-term goals. This could include maintaining a healthy body weight or losing weight, getting to the gym regularly, and eating healthfully over all,” Dixon said. “These are all goals generally incompatible with eating burgers, fries, pizza, chips, and other high-calorie foods on a daily basis.”
The simple killjoy answer in avoiding the “drunchies” is avoiding the “drun” part, or, in other words, don’t drink alcohol to the point of getting drunk. Dixon says this will avoid the brain chemistry changes that send the “I’m starving” signal that may lead you to overeat.
“Remember, trying to not give in to the ‘drunchies’ is like denying a biological imperative to eat when your brain is telling you you’re starving. Perception is everything,” she said. “It doesn’t matter that you aren’t starving. Your brain is telling you otherwise and that’s a very powerful signal to deny.”
The same goes when your brain thinks it’s not getting enough non-alcoholic beverages.
In order to control what you might eat later, Dixon highly recommends staying hydrated by alternating a full glass of water with every drink.
- Brian Krans
Asked by: Anonymous. A 2009 study at the University of Sussex showed that alcohol directly affects the appetite centre of the brain so that energy dense foods like chips and curry seem more attractive after a drink. Subscribe to BBC Focus magazine for fascinating new Q&As every month and follow @sciencefocusQA on Twitter for your daily dose of ...
Dec 29, 2020 · Beer, especially beer high in hops (like an IPA), may be a better option for brain health. Beer contains antioxidants, but the hops in beer may help reduce neuroinflammation and cognitive decline, according to July 2019 research in Nutrients . Hops are what give beer its bitterness, and the more hops, the more bitter your beer will be.
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Jan 24, 2019 · Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach can worsen the side effects of alcohol consumption and bring them on faster than usual. Learn more about the effects of alcohol on your body and the role of food.
