The color of the alcohol you consume may determine whether you end up with a hangover the next day. Research published by the Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research journal has revealed that dark colored wine and alcoholic drinks may lead to nastier hangovers.
The study involved, 95 adults aged between 21 and 33. They were given alcohol (enough to get them drunk) to drink for two nights. They had vodka on the first night and bourbon on the next. The researchers monitored their sleep patterns and asked them questions the next day, about the effects of the previous night drinking.
While both drinks caused some level of hangover, sleep deficiency and low rapid-eye -movement activity it was discovered that dark colored drinks aggravated these symptoms.
Drinks with light color such as gin, vodka, white wine seemed to cause less hangover effects the next day, as opposed to dark colored drinks like bourbon, brandy, spiced rum and red wine.
Researchers attributed the cause of these findings to the fact that drinks with a dark color contain up to 37-times more chemicals and toxins.
So, if you are going out to party or decide to take a few drinks before bed, you may want to beware of drinks spotting a dark look.
“There are far more toxic chemicals called congeners in the darker distilled beverages and wines than in the lighter colored ones,” explained Damaris Rohsenow, professor of community health at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. “While the alcohol alone is enough to make many people feel sick, these toxic substances can add to the ill effects as our body reacts to them.”
Alcohol Color Linked To Hangovers: Study
The testing results could also have been due to getting drunk two nights in a row. To eliminate this effect, it would be necessary to do another test where a dark drink was consumed on the first day and a clear drink on the second day. Better still would be to have had half the group drink light then dark and the other half reversed.
I agree with Gerry – my first thought was drinking two nights in a row – of course the second hang-over (and all associated symptoms) would be the worst. From personal experience I believe the opposite to be true… I don’t think the protocol for this study was well thought out.
Congeners have long been known to cause hangovers. I learned this many years ago, that brown spirits leave behind more chemical residue in the brain than do white spirits. And this residue causes headache. I wonder why this info has not been more widely talked about for years.
Maybe it’s because the ‘dark’ drinks have significant contact with wooden vessels
It would be interesting to also try oaked and unoaked chardonnay to see if the wooden containers make a difference. It would remove the effects of the colour and test the effects of the oak container.