Production: Zhuosi (Japan Institute of Physical Chemistry)

Producer: Computer Network Information Center

China's wine culture has a long history. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "no wine is no gift" and "no wine is no table". Friends should drink at parties, socialize, visit relatives and friends on holidays, drink when they are happy, drink when they are unhappy, sometimes drink by themselves, and sometimes be forced to drink. Alcohol intake can lead to fatty liver, and long-term excessive drinking can lead to inflammation, fibrosis, liver cirrhosis and even liver cancer.

With the increasing emphasis on health, more and more people hope to achieve an atmosphere and pleasure through drinking, hoping that drinking will not affect their health. Then "hangover" is particularly important. People hope that when drinking, they can eat some kind of health care products or health food to achieve the effect of not damaging body organs, or hope that they can recover from drunkenness soon.

A simple search on the Internet will lead to articles such as "10 strongest anti-hangover food" and "12 anti-hangover food", in which daily foods such as tea, honey, yogurt, ginger, rice soup, egg soup and grapefruit are all included. Recently, a news of mulberry dry hangover was reprinted by many media. It is mentioned that "Mulberry contains active enzymes and a lot of selenium, which is an important" liver-protecting factor ". Eating 3-4 dried mulberries 30-40 minutes before drinking can prevent alcoholism, enhance liver function, and improve the anti-oxidation, detoxification and anti-virus ability of the liver. Especially suitable for people who have a headache and want to vomit after drinking. " Is this true or just a rumor? Is there any food that can achieve the effect of hangover? This article will reveal the answer for everyone.

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How do hangover drugs work?

Unlike other food ingredients, alcohol can be directly absorbed by the human body without digestion. Usually, 20% of the alcohol in wine is absorbed by the stomach, and the remaining 80% is absorbed by the upper part of the small intestine. After drinking 1-2 hours, all alcohol can be absorbed by the stomach. Alcohol absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract enters the liver from the veins of the liver and flows to various organs of the whole body. If you want to sober up, you first need to reduce the absorption of alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, avoiding fasting drinking can reduce the absorption rate of alcohol in gastrointestinal tract to some extent.

Decomposition diagram of alcohol entering the human body: after alcohol enters the human body, 20% is absorbed by the stomach and 80% by the intestine. The absorbed alcohol enters the blood, is transported to the liver, is decomposed in the liver, and then is excreted through urine.

(Source: author-made)

As shown in the above picture, alcohol entering blood vessels is quickly taken to the liver for decomposition through blood circulation. In the liver, alcohol is decomposed into acetaldehyde under the action of alcohol dehydrogenase, and then acetaldehyde is decomposed into acetic acid under the action of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, and then decomposed into carbon dioxide and water to be excreted. The toxic effects of high concentrations of alcohol and acetaldehyde in the blood can lead to drunkenness. Therefore, accelerating the decomposition speed of liver and reducing the concentration of alcohol in blood and acetaldehyde in liver can achieve the effect of hangover relief. The content and activity of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase contained in human body are different. By eating foods that enhance the content and activity of this enzyme, the effect of hangover can be achieved.

What kinds of hangover drugs are there?

According to the mechanism of anti-hangover, the types of anti-hangover drugs can be divided into four categories. It should be noted that some components in the picture below have only been confirmed in animal experiments. It can only be said that they may have the potential to alleviate human alcoholism, but whether they are effective or not needs actual clinical experiments to know. The following are the mechanisms of various anti-hangover drugs:

The mechanism of different anti-hangover drugs (source: author's own)

Replenish nutrition and water to reduce discomfort.

When the liver breaks down alcohol, you need to concentrate on your work. At this time, the body can't store energy (sugar), which will cause symptoms such as hypoglycemia. In addition, in the process of drinking, the liver continuously decomposes alcohol into water, and drinking 50g alcohol (about 1.2L canned beer) will cause 600mL- 1000mL excretion, while wine and liquor with higher alcohol content than beer will cause more intense diuresis symptoms and even dehydration. Therefore, water and salt can relieve the symptoms of physical discomfort after drinking, such as dehydration, headache, fatigue and tiredness.

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Supplementing lipids to slow down the absorption of alcohol

As mentioned earlier, avoiding fasting can reduce the absorption of alcohol. In the case of fasting, the blood alcohol concentration can reach the maximum after drinking for about 30 minutes or 60 minutes. In the case of non-fasting, it takes at least 1 hour for the alcohol concentration to reach the maximum after drinking. It is this little time difference that can effectively alleviate the absorption of alcohol and alleviate the symptoms of drunkenness. Among all kinds of ingredients, eat foods rich in fat (such as nuts and cheese). ) is the best.

This is because the fat contained in food is mostly neutral fat with stable chemical properties, which cannot be digested and absorbed in the stomach, emulsified by bile in the duodenum, and decomposed and absorbed by chyle particles formed under the action of digestive enzymes. Therefore, it can be understood that fat forms a "membrane" on the gastric mucosa, which slowly enters the small intestine for digestion and absorption. Because this film is fat-soluble and incompatible with water-soluble substances such as alcohol, it effectively hinders the absorption of substances such as alcohol. So before drinking next time, you can try to eat a few small pieces of cheese or nuts to achieve the effect of hangover.

Strengthen liver function and accelerate the process of alcohol metabolism

Some food ingredients can improve liver activity and promote ethanol metabolism. The root of Dioscorea zingiberensis contains 2%5% natural pigment curcumin, which can greatly improve the important detoxification enzymes (UDP glucuronosyltransferase and glutamine) in the liver and help protect the liver. Because curcumin has obvious antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, it can prevent the nerve damage caused by alcoholic hepatitis and alcohol. Foods rich in curcumin include curry, turmeric and so on.

Japan's most famous hangover drink "The Power of Curcuma Rhizome" contains 30 mg of curcumin.

(Source:

It has also been mentioned that mulberry is rich in selenium, which can enhance the activity of SOD antioxidant enzymes in mice and protect the liver from oxidative damage caused by alcohol through this mechanism. Mulberry is considered as a selenium-enriched fruit, with a selenium content of 2.50.68mg/ 100g, but its selenium content is similar to that of other fish such as pig kidney (157mg/ 100g) and dried squid (156 mg/65438). Therefore, it is hard to say that selenium in mulberry can play a role in hangover.

Let's talk about some hangover-relieving health products on the market, whether it's hangover-relieving tea with various Chinese herbal medicines in China or hangover-relieving nutrient solution in the United States, Japan and other countries. How to tell the truth from the false lies not in the price and packaging, but in its ingredients and whether it contains food ingredients with hangover relieving effect. I believe these foods introduced above can relieve your hangover more or less. But it must be noted that no matter what kind of beneficial food, it should not be used in excess to prevent side effects.

If you see some new food about hangover, don't believe it. You can check whether this food contains the above nutrients, or you can go to the scientific literature website to check scientific research articles and use scientific and reasonable methods to relieve alcoholism.

Of course, compared with the scientific method of hangover, not drinking is the best policy.

refer to

1. Screening of active parts of Mulberry against alcoholic liver injury [J]. Deng, Chen. Journal of Guizhou Normal University (Natural Science Edition) .26438+04 (05)

2.[ 1] Analysis of Selenium Content in Mulberry in Hanbin Suburb of Ankang City [J]. Yang Fang. Hubei Agricultural Sciences.2012 (14)

3./v2/article/detail/ean 3 El 7 e 05 14 aacd . html

6. Protective effect of sesamin on liver https://books.google.co.jp/books? . lang _ ja | lang _ en & ampid = kO3ICgAAQBAJ & ampoi = fnd & amppg=PA 139。 Sesamin+ALDH+ADH&; ots = z3HdufsPcm & ampSIG = zrboxkd 8k 4m 5 naognuz-bsk h8 r 0 # v = one page & amp； Sesamin. F = false

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