Top 5 Foods to AVOID Before a Night of Drinking

Well now, this might be a tricky one to avoid. Whatever regional term you prefer, sweet and delicious carbonated bubbly drinks should be avoided. Colas, ginger ales, energy drinks, lemon-lime sodas and the like, all do little to replenish your body with much needed fluids. In fact, they just leave you dehydrated - something alcohol is already working hard towards. When their powers combine, the tag team of soda pop and hooch deliver a devastating one-two punch of dehydration and unquenchable thirst to keep you on the ropes, before lording it over you the next morning with that sugary hangover. The alternative? Use fruit juices and simple carbonated water for mixers or just stick with beer or wine.

Long story short, if a food is already hard on your tummy when you're sober, it's only going to get more abusive when you're drinking. Yes, the pairing of your favorite spicy food with your drink of choice may seem like heaven, but it’s an unholy intestinal alliance, hell bent on attacking you from within via acid reflux. While spicy food already puts you at risk of a flare up, alcohol relaxes your esophageal sphincter - the muscle responsible for keepings stomach acid in check. So as delicious as a hot curry or bucket of hot wings might be, they're best left off the menu if Captain Morgan, Johnny Walker, Alexander Keith, Jim Beam, or Jack Daniels will be in attendance.

As a wise man once said, “you don't win friends with salad”. If your evening plans include consuming any kind of beverage requiring an ID, then lettuce and company is not the meal of choice to get on your body's good side. Sure, it makes sense - as anyone with a lab coat and box of latex gloves will tell you, salad is always a healthy choice - but when beer, wine, and spirits are on the invite list, eating a leafy green salad is basically like not eating at all. Because they're simpler to digest, vegetables will likely be out of your system long before your stomach is overrun with booze. What you really need... is protein.

With all due respect to the Dude, the duo of dairy and alcohol won't do much to tie the room together. Much like the dangerous dance that is spicy food and hooch, the partnership of cow juice and firewater is a recipe for heartburn, with a Pepto-Bismol chaser. Part of the problem is that even when sober... dairy isn't a delight for your digestive tract. Additionally, as previously mentioned, a drunk tummy is one already prone to acid reflux. Unfortunately this bad news isn't limited to White Russians and the like - it means that cheese and cheese-enhanced foods like nachos, tacos, and even pizza are equally ill-advised before or after the drinking has begun.

The following should not come as a shock to you, but salty foods make you thirsty. Loading up on peanuts, chips, pretzels, or cashews will only make you drink more - and that leads to all kinds of trouble. Alcohol is what we call a “diuretic”, which means it does two things: First, it prevents the body from properly absorbing water, leaving you thirsty and likely to drink more. And second... it ramps up your urine production. Add a bowl of party nuts or corn chips to the mix and your night of intellectual discussion and confident dance floor acrobatics risks being reduced to a fuzzy evening slouched on a bar stool, only broken up by frequent pee breaks. Do you agree with our list? What’s the food you generally avoid before (or during) a night of drinking? For more smashing Top 10s and staggering top 5s published daily, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.