The end-of-year celebrations are an opportunity to open the champagne, but also the good bottles of wine kept in the cellar. And since it's not Christmas and New Year's Day every day, it may be that we overindulge (we then plan to sleep there, of course!) which can cause minor inconvenience the next day. Headaches and insatiable thirst, we know the song… So why does wine have this rather unpleasant effect? For a long time, it was sulfites (or sulfur, more simply), which act as a preservative, which were singled out, but this is not the case. The Vinepair website has identified three responsible for the headache, but beware, it is clearly specified that the main reasons are above all excessive consumption of wine and too little water consumption. That's it!
Tannins are antioxidants naturally present in the skin of the grape, its stem and its pips. If the wine leaves a feeling of dryness in the mouth, it is the tannins. Although they do not cause any real effect on the majority of wine lovers, there is a way to tell if they are the culprit of a nasty headache:just make yourself a cup of black tea , in which the sachet is left to infuse longer than recommended (about 10 minutes). Black tea is packed with tannins, and if you get a headache after drinking the brew, you need to stay away from the tannins. And so red wine. Damn!
Alcohol and sugar are the ideal mixture to create a good big headache. The duo encourages us to drink a lot of water in parallel in order to “digest” the two substances. Lack of hydration causes the body to draw the water it needs from other parts of the body, including the head. The rest, you will have understood:as the liquid present in the head runs out, a headache emerges. It is therefore recommended to leave out sweet wines and cheap wines, which contain more sugar than average.
Histamines are signaling molecules released when you have an allergic reaction, and which can create the famous symptoms of a runny nose, itchy eyes and… a headache. Science has recently shown that products that have aged, such as meat or red wine, can "trigger" histamines and its symptoms. The Vinepair site recommends taking a histamine blocker such as loratadine before consuming red wine.
But to avoid the drums in the head, the best is still to drink a glass of water between each glass of wine. Cheers, and in moderation of course!
