Do's & Don'ts of Eating During Carnival

There are some sim­ple dos and don’ts that every­one should fol­low when drink­ing. Fol­low­ing these tips won’t on­ly make you have en­er­gy all through the night but, it’ll def­i­nite­ly ease the blow of the morn­ing af­ter hang­over. Our ar­ti­cle in­cludes sim­ple tips that in­volve know­ing your body, sci­ence and a lit­tle bit of com­mon sense.

Dos

Eat A Bal­anced Meal

Eat­ing be­fore is im­por­tant but, to get the most out of your meal, it should be bal­anced. Soup won’t do much and the myth about carb load­ing is just that, a myth. A bal­anced meal that con­tains healthy grains, good fats, a lot of fruits and veg­gies and a source of pro­tein will keep you full and keep your blood sug­ar sta­ble en­sur­ing that there aren’t any un­nec­es­sary crash­es or surges of drunk­en­ness at the fete. We rec­om­mend yo­gurt and gra­nola be­cause it has car­bo­hy­drates, fats and pro­tein and will keep you full for a sol­id 4 to 6 hours.

Drink Co­conut Wa­ter or A Sports Drink Dur­ing And Be­fore

Keep­ing hy­drat­ed be­fore the fete stops you from get­ting in­cred­i­bly dunk ex­treme­ly fast and soft­ens the blow of the morn­ing af­ter hang­over. But, sur­prise—we’re not rec­om­mend­ing wa­ter. Of course drink wa­ter, how­ev­er, try to drink co­conut wa­ter (with­out the Scotch) and a sports drink be­fore and dur­ing. They con­tain a lot of the nu­tri­ents that you lose when you drink al­co­hol and keep you feel­ing pumped and en­er­gised, in­stead of the usu­al lag you feel at about 3 in the morn­ing. If it’s a cool­er fete then re­mem­ber to stick a bot­tle of ei­ther in your cool­er, if it isn’t then, just ask for straight co­conut wa­ter at the bar.

Eat Eggs The Morn­ing Af­ter

There’s an ac­tu­al sci­en­tif­ic rea­son for eat­ing eggs the morn­ing af­ter a night of boozy fun. Eggs con­tain a high lev­el of cys­teine, an amino acid which breaks down ac­etalde­hyde, the chem­i­cal re­spon­si­ble for the hang­over. Eggs al­so con­tain spe­cif­ic min­er­als which can help in rid­ding your body of tox­ins built up in your body from the night be­fore. We rec­om­mend a plain fried egg on toast most­ly be­cause any­thing fanci­er or with more in­gre­di­ents may just make you want to hurl. Al­so, it helps that you have a sim­ple break­fast in the morn­ing rather than try­ing to make an omelette in a hun­gover stu­por.

Have Left­overs (Or Some Food) In Your Fridge

This is a life­saver. You don’t have to go search­ing for food in a drunk­en state or re­sort to less than de­sir­able fast food. Of course, not every­one has the lux­u­ry of hav­ing left­overs so, a good idea is to pur­chase food be­fore and leave it in the fridge. You can en­joy home-cooked or at least, sub­stan­tial food in the com­fort of your own home. If you don’t have left­overs, we sug­gest buy­ing a smooth­ie bowl or ba­nana as they both have nu­tri­ents that get lost once you binge drink.

Donts

Not Eat Be­fore A Fete

We have no idea why any­one would ever do this. Al­co­hol gets ab­sorbed much faster by your body when there isn’t food in your stom­ach. You risk get­ting drunk or sick af­ter your first drink, for­get­ting the en­tire night (not just half) and re­al­ly just not en­joy­ing it. Plus, with ze­ro food to ease the blow of the morn­ing af­ter, you can be cer­tain that a se­ri­ous throw-up ses­sion and hang­over is in or­der. So, even if there is caraille in the fridge, suck it up and eat it. Your di­ges­tive sys­tem will thank you.

Eat Very Spicy Foods Be­fore

This one prob­a­bly doesn’t need much ex­pla­na­tion. Every Tri­ni loves pep­per sauce and yes, it is a must-have but, un­less you want a very un-wel­comed vis­it to the portable pot­ties then, don’t risk it. If you are crav­ing pep­per then, stick with a dish or pep­per sauce that your body is ac­cus­tomed to and that doesn’t re­act poor­ly with your di­ges­tive sys­tem. Oth­er than that, do not risk it.

Drink Cof­fee Right Be­fore

This ‘don’t’ has more to do with its ef­fects on your bow­els than your en­er­gy. If it doesn’t af­fect you in the ‘low­er-part’ of your body then (lucky you), can have a cup be­fore so you’re wide awake for the fete. How­ev­er, if you do have to run to the bath­room af­ter caf­feine, then ei­ther en­sure you make a trip to the toi­let be­fore you leave your house or, just don’t drink it.

Ex­per­i­ment With Your Usu­al Drunk Food

Af­ter you’ve been drink­ing for hours, try­ing out the new gy­ro truck on the street is not the best idea. Even though there are cer­tain foods that are best suit­ed to eat while drunk, every­one has their go-to food. Gold­en rule: Do not de­vi­ate. If you know your body takes kind­ly to a hot cup of corn soup, don’t go chas­ing the dou­bles man for ‘two with slight’ be­cause that will land your gut in trou­ble. Sure, it’s not cer­tain you will throw up how­ev­er, stay away from all pos­si­bil­i­ties that you may—puk­ing at a fete is just not at­trac­tive.