What to Eat and Drink Before Drinking Alcohol: The Evidence

The NHS advice before drinking is short: "Try to have something to eat, and drink a glass of water, before you have alcohol. Alternate alcoholic drinks with water or other non-alcoholic drinks."¹ In the studies, a meal cut peak blood alcohol by about a third and raised the rate at which the body cleared alcohol by a quarter to nearly a half, whatever the meal was made of.^{2, 3} No study has linked a pre-drinking meal to the next morning, and the things people take before drinking rest on one small trial each in the 2022 systematic review, every efficacy result rated very low quality.⁴ This page sits inside how to not be hungover, the Wellgard hangover guide.

What does the NHS advise before and during drinking?

Before: "Try to have something to eat, and drink a glass of water, before you have alcohol."¹ On the night: "limit how much you drink; drink more slowly; drink with food; alternate your drinks with water or non-alcoholic drinks".⁵ Over the week: "men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis"; "spread your drinking over 3 or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units a week"; "try to have several drink-free days each week".⁵ And: "If you drink less than 14 units a week, this is considered low-risk drinking. It's called 'low risk' rather than 'safe' because there's no safe drinking level."⁵ For the arithmetic, see how many units are in a drink.

What does eating before drinking do to blood alcohol?

It lowers the peak and speeds the clearance. In a Dundee study, 8 men and 8 women drank the same alcohol fasting, after a snack of crisps and after a light meal. Peak breath alcohol averaged 30.5 micrograms per 100 ml fasting and 21.4 after the meal, and the alcohol available for absorption after a meal was only 66% of the predicted value in women and 71% in men; the crisps changed almost nothing.² Clearance, measured separately with intravenous alcohol: a breakfast raised the elimination rate by an average 25% in 20 people, and by 45% in 8 people "regardless of composition", whether high-fat, high-protein or high-carbohydrate.³

So there is no best food in the evidence: no trial has compared one dinner with another, and none has followed a pre-drinking meal through to the next morning. The same units still have to be cleared, at the rate described in how long alcohol stays in your system.

Is it better to drink on a full or an empty stomach?

The same drinks give a lower, later peak after a meal and a higher, earlier one on an empty stomach, with "overshoot" seen in most fasting subjects within about 40 minutes.² None measured stomach comfort, and the folk ideas (a glass of milk, a spoon of oil) have no trial behind them; stomach pain that keeps returning is a question for a pharmacist or GP.

Does drinking water between drinks make a difference?

To the hangover, less than most people expect. A 2024 review found that dehydration and hangover both follow drinking but run alongside each other. In survey data, water drunk during or directly after alcohol "had only a modest effect" on next-day hangover, and "the amount of water consumed during hangover was not related to changes of hangover severity and thirst".⁶ What a glass of water between drinks reliably does is slow the drinking down, which is the NHS advice.⁵ For the day, the NHS line is "6 to 8 cups or glasses of fluid a day".⁷ No study supports a water target before a night out.

Does what you drink matter?

Far less than how much. In the one well-controlled trial, 95 heavy drinkers were taken to 0.11 g% breath alcohol on bourbon one night and vodka another, with placebo nights. "No effect of beverage congeners was found except on hangover severity, with people feeling worse after bourbon"; sleep and next-day performance did not differ by drink, and the authors' review concluded that "ethanol effects per se had a considerably stronger effect on hangover than did congener content".⁸ No drink is ranked here: "there's no safe drinking level".⁵

What did the trials of things taken before drinking find?

The 2022 systematic review from King's College London found 21 placebo-controlled randomised trials of any active intervention, 386 participants in total. "No two studies reported on the same intervention; as such, meta-analysis could not be undertaken", and "Methodological concerns and imprecision resulted in all studied efficacy outcomes being rated as very low quality."⁴ The pre-drinking interventions, and the trials since, as stated:

None has been repeated by an independent group, several were run by the makers, and the review concludes that "Only very low quality evidence of efficacy is available to recommend any pharmacologically active intervention".⁴ The UK medicines regulator regards a product presented as doing anything about a hangover or its symptoms as a medicine needing a licence,¹⁹ which is why nothing here is a suggestion. The full account, with patches and the painkiller wording, is in what the trials of hangover pills and supplements found.

Does finishing earlier or sleeping longer change the morning?

Among 578 students describing their latest hangover, those who slept under 7 hours reported significantly more severe hangovers than those who slept longer, even though the longer sleepers had drunk more.²⁰ The arithmetic follows from the NHS unit sentence: "One unit equals 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour", "although this will vary from person to person".²¹ Six units at eleven are, on that average, still being cleared at five. The second half of the night is explained in why alcohol wakes you up at 3am.

Does smoking on the night matter?

In a diary study of 113 students over 8 weeks, on days reaching an estimated blood alcohol of 110 mg/dl, "smoking significantly increased the odds of hangover incidence and hangover severity while controlling for number of drinks consumed and sex".²²

The honest summary is the UK systematic review in the BMJ: "The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol induced hangover is to practise abstinence or moderation."²³ If drinking itself is the worry, the NHS wording is: "Drinkline is the national alcohol helpline. If you're worried about your own or someone else's drinking, you can call this free helpline in complete confidence. Call 0300 123 1110 (weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 11am to 4pm)." and "A good place to start is with a GP."²⁴ In Scotland, NHS inform lists Drinkline Scotland on 0800 7314 314.²⁵

Frequently asked questions

Will I get less drunk if I eat first?

The peak will be lower and later: 21.4 against 30.5 micrograms per 100 ml in the Dundee study.² The same units are still cleared at about one an hour,²¹ and there is no way to drink without getting drunk beyond drinking less: "there's no safe drinking level".⁵

How do I prepare my body for drinking?

Nothing beyond the NHS lines: eat, have a glass of water, alternate drinks, drink more slowly, keep the total down.^{1, 5} No study has tested a routine, a supplement or a particular food against the next day.

What do people in Japan or Korea drink before alcohol?

Pear juice, red ginseng drinks and oriental raisin tree extracts, the pre-drinking trials in the table: one trial each, 14 to 26 men, rated very low quality by the review.⁴

Is a glass of water before bed worth it?

For thirst, yes. For the hangover, the 2024 review found the amount of water drunk during a hangover "was not related to changes of hangover severity and thirst".⁶ The next morning: what to eat and drink with a hangover.

Can I take something before drinking for acid reflux?

A pharmacist's question, and a GP's if reflux keeps returning; this page does not advise on medicines.

Sources

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5. NHS. The risks of drinking too much. nhs.uk
6. Mackus M et al. Alcohol hangover versus dehydration revisited. 2024. PubMed 39069212
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20. van Schrojenstein Lantman M et al. Total sleep time and hangover severity. 2017. PubMed 28721110
21. NHS. Alcohol units. nhs.uk
22. Jackson KM et al. Smoking and hangover symptoms in students. 2013. PubMed 23200149
23. Pittler MH et al. Systematic review of hangover interventions. BMJ 2005. PubMed 16373736
24. NHS. Alcohol support. nhs.uk
25. NHS inform. Alcohol support (updated 7 October 2026). nhsinform.scot