You’re Wrong About “beer Before Liquor”
There is a lot of mythology in the drinking culture. For example, you may think that after peeing at night you are doomed to go to the toilet non-stop because you ” broke the seal “, but this is not the case. You may also think that “dog hair” will help you deal with a hangover, but this is also not true . Another old proverb that gets mentioned a lot? “Beer before liquor, never worse. Liquor before beer, in its purest form.
This statement assumes that if you start the night with beer and then switch to something stronger, you will either get sick that night or the next day, but if you start the night with hard drinks and move on to beer, you will be fine. Is it true? Let’s find out.
Why do people say and believe this?
We’ve all had too much to drink before. We all know what it’s like to go to bed with backs, wake up feeling nauseous, and spend the next day with a terrible headache. The point is that we are to blame for overeating every time, but it is easier to put the blame on something else – in this case, the order in which many, many drinks were drunk last night.
Since it’s common to start the night with a beer at, say, a back door, a kickback, or before a game, before moving on to shots or cocktails, once you get to the bar and the party vibes intensify, you might be inclined to blame the order rather than the sheer amount of drinking. This is understandable, but wrong.
Why is this proverb false?
Here’s the thing: alcohol is alcohol. No matter what kind of alcohol it is, it can still make you drunk and cause a hangover. Likewise, it can still make you sick. There is no magic liquor or beer that won’t make you feel bad if you drink too much. (If they were, we would already know about it for sure.) And there are too many operational words.
According to Healthline , alcohol begins to be absorbed into your bloodstream the moment it enters your stomach, so by the time you’re hungover the next day, you’ve already taken everything you drank the night before. The order really doesn’t matter. This article also points out that the order in which types of alcohol are drunk can lead some people to consume more than if they did the opposite. Look at your own habits. After the beer rush, are you more likely to agree when your friend announces it’s time for a drink? Conversely, after drinking a few cocktails, do you get disgusted at the thought of filling up with beer?
While it’s clear that this is subjective and entirely based on a person’s own habits, there’s also some solid scientific evidence to support the falsity of claims that drinking order matters at all. A 2019 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispelled this myth by finding, after studying 90 participants, that “neither the type nor order of drinking alcoholic beverages significantly affected hangover severity.”
This study also debunked another but similar urban legend that I strongly defend myself: “Grapes or grain, but not both.” Those of us who (foolishly) believe this swear we won’t get hangovers the next day if we drink the same thing all night. However, despite the fact that the study effectively threw water — or light beer, if you will — on this whole theory, I still stick with it, but with the firm knowledge that it’s bullshit. Why? Because, whether it’s because I drink less when I stick to one type of alcohol, or because I believe it so strongly that I use the placebo effect to feel better the next day, I actually suffer fewer side effects. effects when I don’t mix my poisons. (Because alcohol is actually a poison.)
If a myth resonates with you, feel free to use it as a guide the next time you go out. Just know that this is not backed by science and the real reason for your less hungover morning is that you made better choices. If a catchy rhyme helps you act more responsibly and makes it less likely that you’ll wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck, I say keep doing it.