sandover
Hi,
One thing I found during years of heavy drinking/hangovers galore is that when I was hung over, I did want sugary drinks. I think I craved them not because of the sugar, but because straight water is hard on the stomach. This is why, for instance, Pedialyte contains sugars/electrolytes -- it's a way, albeit a less-than-perfect one, to get fluids in faster. In fact, if you look at Gatorade's website -- and I was a big Gatorade/Coke drinker when hung over -- their marketing pitch to those of us who should not be drinking Gatorade, which is most of the Gatorade-drinking population (i.e. the non-athletes), is that it is more palatable than straight water, and therefore people will drink "enough" and achieve adequate hydration. I don't understand why exactly this is, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that when our mouths taste/feel/sense sugar, tbey will pretty much do anything to make us get it down the hatch!
When my children were sick a couple of years ago as infants, a friend who is a nurse explained why they were throwing up water I was giving them and that it was important to give them the Pedialyte instead -- I would have not done this had it not been my experience, too, to have those hangovers where I would drink and almost instantly throw up a lot of water, whereas I could keep soda down. This summer, when I was having that same extreme hangover feeling every day and throwing up all day long due to migraines, I did resort to Gatorade a few times (only some, not all of their flavors contain the BVO -- Powerade seems to contain more). I would dilute it and drink it to keep some fluids down, although I am not crazy about the sugars in it. (On the site, they say it's good for diabetics -- how can this be???) Anyway -- it was sometimes helpful on that front, and if you are too weak to go out and get anything, I'd say it's a good last resort. The couple of days I could not keep Gatorade down were ER/IV fluids days.
I'd advise Molly's "hair of the dog" recipe above all else as long as you are someone who can control his/her drinking. It works after you can manage to swallow the first sips.
Hope you are better by now!
Laura