Cheers! NRI has vodka-based hangover cure

Doctors say teetotalism, abstinence and moderation are the only ways to beat hangovers. London-based nutrition therapist Gurpareet Bains (32) disagrees, and offers the world a desi vodka-based cocktail boosted with natural superfoods to ward off nasty hangovers.

Doctors say teetotalism, abstinence and moderation are the only ways to beat hangovers. London-based nutrition therapist Gurpareet Bains (32) disagrees, and offers the world a desi vodka-based cocktail boosted with natural superfoods to ward off nasty hangovers.

HT Image

Bains, whose Indian Superfood cookbook will hit the market in May 2010, claims to have invented an alcoholic cocktail that uses potent antioxidants from fruits and spices to prevent hangovers by cleansing the bloodstream of alcohol-induced toxicity.

“This cocktail is about helping people have a good time without having to pay for it the following morning,” Bains was quoted saying in The Times, London.

The Christmas spice-infused acai (jamun) and pomegranate cocktail, which has an alcohol by volume rate of 40 per cent, will still cause drunkenness, but its ingredients fight the familiar symptoms of a hangover such as a splitting head and parched mouth.

Despite the health benefits, Bains said only drinking in moderation would prevent a hangover. “Alcohol, in any form, is bad for the body and its cells,” he said.

What causes a hangover is not clear, but the most accepted theory is that it is the immune system’s reaction to the toxic byproducts of alcoholic fermentation called congeners. The rule of thumb is that the darker the alcohol, the more congeners it has, which explains why vodka causes less severe hangovers than dark rum.