Bad news: beer before wine won't 'make you fine'

Beer before wine, you’ll feel fine, wine before beer, you’ll feel queer.

You may have subscribed to this old adage in the past when drinking alcohol, in the hope of avoiding a hangover the next day.

In what, arguably, could be described as the most enjoyable scientific experiment ever, Witten/Herdecke University in Germany enlisted the help of 90 volunteers to test the theory.

Those polled were split into three different groups and tasked with drinking large amounts of alcohol.

• Group one drank two and a half pints of lager, followed by four large glasses of white wine.

• Group two drank four large glasses of white wine, followed by two and a half pints of lager.

• The third drank the same amount of alcohol, but stuck to just white wine or beer.

The participants were then kept under medical supervision overnight.

The following week, the first two groups mixed up the order in which they drank and the third group (the control group) switched their alcohol choice.

All participants were asked to self-assess how drunk they were at the end of each experiment via a questionnaire.

They were also asked to rate their hangovers the next day.

It was discovered that, no matter what order drinks were drunk in, participants still reported the same hangover scores.

“The only reliable way of predicting how miserable you’ll feel the next day is by how drunk you feel and whether you are sick. We should all pay attention to these red flags when drinking,” concluded lead author of the study, Jöran Köchling.

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While you may not be able to prevent a hangover by drinking alcohol in a certain order, you should be sure to cut yourself some slack the next day.

Professor Ian Hamilton, lecturer in mental health and addiction at the University of York, gave his top tip for coping with a hangover the next day to Yahoo UK on the Britain is a Nation of… podcast.

He said: “I think the main top tips I would have is make sure you drink plenty of water, have something to eat and mentally, you don’t have to do anything, watch a bit of telly, cuddle up on the sofa. Look after yourself.”

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