I first discovered the sugar connection (a term borrowed from the article below) when working in a Muslim country where there was no alcohol. I was incredible surprised one morning to wake up with the distinct feeling of an (albeit fairly mild) hangover, even though I hadn’t drunk any alcohol. Once this had happened a few times I realised that it was down to the soft drinks which I had consumed in unusually large quantities in place of alcohol. So I discovered, as crazy as it might sound, that sugar gives you a hangover. Try it out yourself – drink 2 or 3 cans of coke before bed and see how you feel the next morning.

Photo by Leighann Renee on Unsplash

The idea of a sugar low or sugar hangover is not new. As Grethchen licker writes here on mindbodygreen.com, “Sugar hangovers are real, and they do not feel good!”. Similar articles can be found here on the Huff Post or here on self.com.  This article in Body Ecology even explains how sugar and alcohol can affect you in similar ways since they both affect your kidneys, liver etc, but this excellent article on MyGutHealth puts it all together and confirms just how much of an affect sugar can have to your alcohol hangover (and also some tips to prevent that).