Miracles with coffee, tea and sugar
Hangover? Try coffee
Scientists have confirmed that the traditional morning-after boost is better than modern alternatives like organic honey, or a raw egg .
The caffeine in coffee and anti-inflammatory ingredients of aspirin combat the alcohol, said Philadelphia researcher Michael Oshinsky.
He discovered this by inducing headaches in rats using small amounts of ethanol or pure alcohol.
The animals then had doses of caffeine and anti-inflammatories which cleared the pain.
"None of the commonly cited cures for hangovers could have caused this response," said Oshinsky.Tea, the energiser
Researchers looked at the effect of key chemicals found in tea on the mental performance of 44 young volunteers.
The effects of these ingredients, an amino acid called L-theanine -- also found in green tea -- and caffeine at levels typically found in a cup of tea, were compared with a dummy treatment, the journal Nutritional Neuroscience reports.
The active ingredients significantly improved accuracy across a number of switching tasks for those who drank the tea after 20 and 70 minutes compared with the placebo.
The tea drinkers' alertness was also heightened, the study found, according to the Daily Mail.
Tea was also found to reduce tiredness among the volunteers, who were aged under 40, according to the Dutch researchers.
Tim Bond of the industry-backed Tea Advisory Panel said the latest findings backed a previous study, which showed drinking two cups of black tea "improves the ability to react to stimuli and to focus attention on the task in hand".
A spoon full of sugar can control anger
Ohio State University researchers in the US compared the behaviour of sugar-starved volunteers with those who had been given a sweet drink, and concluded the latter were less inclined to snap.
Researchers believe the effect is caused by glucose, a simple sugar found in the bloodstream that provides energy for the brain, reports the journal Aggressive Behaviour.
Study co-author Brad Bushman from Ohio State University said: "Avoiding aggressive impulses takes self control, and self control takes a lot of energy. Glucose provides that energy in the brain", according to the Daily Mail.
"Drinking sweetened lemonade helped provide the short-term energy needed to avoid lashing out at others," Bushman added.
