Is this so-called hangover cure breakfast all it’s cracked up to be?
When a nutritionist promised an easy morning-after miracle cure for over-imbibers — it had to be wishful drinking.
Ahead of the New Year — and in the journalistic pursuit of truth — I got blind drunk and hit the kitchen to test Cara Shaw’s claim that alcohol-induced ailments could be healed by a meal of eggs, avocado, feta, mushrooms and more.
After a drunken December that kicked off with The Post’s booze-fueled holiday party — no one loves liquor more than my colleagues — and continued through Christmas, I was ready to go stone-cold sober.
Many mornings, I’ve awoken in last night’s clothes, crippled by pulsing headaches and nausea. On more than one occasion, I’ve done serious face time with my toilet bowl.
But when my editor suggested I get back on the bottle for an assignment, I was easily convinced. Plus, I was curious about Shaw’s hangover cure claim — and I’m no quitter.
Cruising for a boozing
As a journalist — and an Aussie, no less — my liver has been through rigorous training for this. Tricks like Tylenol, Pedialyte and Gatorade simply don’t work for me. And while chugging coffee can help with a headache, it’s hardly a cure-all.
So I enlisted a drinking buddy for my night of boozing, because hitting the sauce solo felt sad.
For the sake of my hard (liquor)-hitting investigation, I downed an entire bottle of Malbec — red wine hangovers are always the worst — plus four spiked seltzers for good measure. A very good night ensued — no yolk.
But after a horrible five-hour sleep, I awoke the next morning immediately feeling sorry for myself.
Although I wasn’t nauseous, my head was pounding and my body was shaking. I was also ravenous — and ready to eat.
The recipe
It’s no standard hangover fare like greasy burgers or bagels — hard to beat.
- 3 eggs any style
- ½ cup of mushrooms sautéed in olive oil
- ½ avocado
- A sprinkle of feta
- A handful of cooked tomatoes
- Drizzle of olive oil
Supposedly, eggs’ choline content can help detoxify the liver, while mushrooms and feta contain energy-boosting B vitamins. And tomatoes and olive oil have anti-inflammatory properties that purportedly combat the ill effects of boozing.
The recipe is curiously absent of any meats, including bacon, which, according to researchers at the University of Newcastle, can help the brain start functioning properly again after a night of heavy drinking.
Plus, I needed multiple plates and pans — annoying when McDonald’s can easily be ordered online and eaten ungracefully out of a paper bag.
And what lazy hungover person wants to cook anyway?
Not to mention, I had to endure the additional humiliation of being photographed over a frying pan in my pajamas.
Ina Garten would never.
According to Shaw, the eggs can be prepared in any style, so I fried them sunny side up.
The results
And it wasn’t eggs-actly all it’s cracked up to be. Oeuf.
The finished product was — as the accompanying photos demonstrate — fowl.
I was so hungry that I needed to carb up with toast. And the eggs and olive oil made the meal feel greasy without being satisfying.
After the eggheaded experiment, I still felt icky but waited patiently for the promised results.
They never came.
B vitamins from mushrooms and feta didn’t help me feel any more energized. And if the eggs helped to detoxify my liver, I certainly didn’t notice.
With my headache and body shakes persisting, the hangover-busting breakfast was rotten.
Perhaps it’s hardly surprising, as experts say the only way to avoid a hangover is to cut out alcohol completely.
“The best way to deal with next morning’s symptoms is to prevent them from happening in the first place,” More Labs’ Dr. Fu Chen told The Post.
But if, like me, you don’t want to give up on liquor, there’s always McDonald’s nuggets to be ordered on Seamless.
And finally, we have an answer to the chicken or the egg.
Let’s drink to that.
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