Top Tip to Energize your life

Bad hangovers. Why alcohol is only partly to blame

The summer is on its way with thoughts of bar b q's or sitting in the garden with a glass of chilled white wine. As with the seasons, your body is always changing. If you were once an enthusiastic drinker in your twenties, you may find that you can't put it away like you used to. For some people, capacity is not the only change and reaction to a night of social drinking. If you find you start to develop a hangover after a couple of hours, go home ravenously hungry even if you have been out to dinner and have a rasping hoarseness in your throat as though you smoked 20 a day, sulphites, not alcohol may be the culprit.

Sulphites are a group of sulphur based chemicals which are very effective preservatives and stop foods going brown. Without sulphites, white wine would otherwise be a murky brown. Sulphites are the most common preservative in wines, cider and some beers but also in foods such as dried fruit, soya sauce, jam, hams and cured meats, and fruit juices made from concentrate. Frozen potatoes are sprinkled with sulphites to stop them going brown.

Sulphites are useful, to the food manufacturers to help foods look good - but they don't suit everyone. If you suffer from asthma or eczema, you are likely to be sensitive to sulphites. Most people can tolerate a level of up to 20mg of sulphites. A medium glass of white wine contains around 25mg. Beer usually has added sulphites as well as those formed during fermentation. However, German bottled beer (even non-organic) is wonderfully pure and free from sulphites. Spirits are generally low in sulphites but watch out for mixers - lime cordial and tonic with a "twist of lemon" are high in sulphites. Normal tonic water is fine.

Apart from drinks, dried fruits (especially apricots, bananas, apples and peaches), sausages, vinegar, ketchup, are to be avoided if you are sensitive to sulphites. Look on the label - the following E numbers are sulphite based additives - E220, E221, E222, E223, E224, E226, E227, E228, E150.

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