Study Shows That Drinking ‘Dark-Coloured’ Alcohol Will Make You Feel Worse The Next Day

Last Updated on 2023-04-25 , 2:31 pm

Here is where we debate the age-old discussion of colour.

We all know that when it comes to anything, the darker the colour the better.

Chocolate? Dark chocolate > milk chocolate. Check.

Fridays? Black Fridays got discounts. Check.

Light mode? Dark mode is better for your eyes. Check.

And when it comes to alcohol, dark-coloured alcohol will make your hangover worse, which means that it is clearly the superior option here.

There’s an explanation for this though:

Dark-Coloured Alcohol Contains More Congeners

In case you think I’m just pulling random facts out, a study on 95 people done by Brown University found that “bourbon drinkers reported feeling worse than vodka drinkers, rating higher on scales that measure the severity of hangover malaise, including headache, nausea, loss of appetite and thirst in reference to their hangovers.

The reason for this is pretty simple. Bourbon contains 37 times more impurities – congeners like acetone, acetaldehyde, tannins and furfural – than vodka.

Which means that if your objective is to get as wasted as possible and have the next morning be as terrible as possible, go for darker-coloured alcohol options.

(*Goody Feed isn’t responsible for any copious vodka drinking by our readers. Drinking alcohol, regardless of whether it’s clear spirits like Vodka, Gin, Rum, or dark-coloured like whiskey, brandy, and tequila, it still results in poorer sleep, worse attention and slower reaction time.)

These impurities are also what gives dark-coloured alcohol their flavour. Another good news is that some of these impurities also happen to be antioxidants.

No pain no gain.

Being Old Is Pain

Science is also telling us that simply being old increases suffering. What I mean to say is that hangovers get worse with age, which may be due to things like higher body fat and less water in your system.

You might be asking: but GoodyFeed, I don’t want to suffer. Tell me how to avoid the hangover.

And I can only say welcome to adulthood. You have to live with the pain.

Practice Moderation

There actually is something you can do. Drink plenty of water when having alcoholic drinks and have food alongside. This helps to prevent alcohol from being absorbed into the body too quickly.

A glass of water between every drink and one more before you sleep is a good guide to follow.

But as long as you drink, there’s pretty much no avoiding what’s to come. So, don’t drink too much. It may feel good at the moment you’re chugging it down, but you might just regret it the next morning.