I was drinking gin from 10am at Latitude — one thing helped prevent a hangover – Bundlezy

I was drinking gin from 10am at Latitude — one thing helped prevent a hangover

Rob Buckhaven wearing a rain poncho and holding a tin of gin, with the Drink Up logo and a purple background
Rob claims one thing helped him avoid a nasty hangover at Latitude Festival (Picture: Getty Images/fStop/Rob Buckhaven)

Back in Roman times it was all about eating fried canaries and raw owls’ eggs, or crushed up swallows’ beaks and pig offal to stave off a hangover.

Meanwhile, the Mongolians were scoffing picked sheep eyes and the Puerto Ricans were rubbing lemons under their armpits.

Personally, I’ve never trusted any thing other than a full English breakfast or hair of the dog. But, when a small, luminous yellow pouch called PrePear landed on my desk, promising preventative salvation from too many gins and slims, I was intrigued.

So, I did what any self-respecting drinks columnist would do: I took it to a field in Suffolk and tested it under some of the most rigorous conditions known to mankind… Latitude Festival.

For PrePear to take effect, you’re meant to take it at least 20 minutes before your first drink. Think of it as a kind of preventative prayer to the party gods.

In my case, this meant trying it at 10:10am. Feeder and Fatboy Slim were playing later on, so I knew it was going to be a big day.

The sachet of PrePear in question, £16 for a 6-pack (Picture: prepearjuice.com)

What is PrePear?

What exactly was this dinky carton of fruit-based elixir I’d just gulped down? No less than 100% Shingo Korean pear juice (Pyrus pyrifolia), aka ‘the king of fruit’ (which I thought was the Durian, but whatever).

Apparently it’s naturally laced with vitamins, minerals, and small amounts of potassium and polyphenol antioxidants. It has a higher water, potassium and fructose content than the European pear, and has been used in East Asian medicine for decades.

Flavour-wise, it tastes like something a wellness influencer might have for breakfast (and tell you about, at great length); sweet with a lightly cleansing nuttiness, almost like biting into the russeting on a fresh pear. Pretty delicious, actually.

It wasn’t just me, either. I made two of my friends down a PrePear sachet each, and I filmed them doing it so I could make a TikTok. Who says I’m no fun at a festival? My thinking was to get a three-way test going, in case the results differed.

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What does Korean pear juice do?

A small study, published in the journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology, examined the impact of Korean pear juice on alcohol consumption.

It saw a group of 14 men given either pear juice or a placebo to drink, then after waiting 30 minutes, they consumed 540 ml of spirits (alcohol conc. 20.1 v/v%).

Blood and urine samples were collected and tested and showed the ‘total and average of hangover severity were alleviated to 16% and 21% respectively by Korean pear juice’, 15 hours after alcohol had been consumed.

Those who had consumed pear juice before boozing were found to have improved concentration and focus the next day, less sensitivity to light, enhanced metabolic processing of alcohol and notably decreased blood alcohol levels.

A peer-led review by Australia’s national science agency, CSITO, also found reductions in blood alcohol levels.

Professor Manny Noakes, the study’s lead researcher, told The Sydney Herald: ‘It appears that the factors in Korean pears act on the key enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), to speed up alcohol metabolism and elimination or inhibition of alcohol absorption.

‘In particular, reductions were seen in blood acetaldehyde levels, the toxic metabolic thought to be responsible for the hangover symptoms, with pear juice consumption.’

Plus, the juice contains additional water for hydration to the tune of an 85% content, natural sugars to help maintain blood glucose and fruit polyphenols to bring down inflammation.

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Does PrePear actually prevent a hangover?

That little carton had its work cut out with us.

The drinks were many and varied that day – from Jack Daniels and diet coke, gin and slimline tonics, bookended by Espresso Martinis in the Tia Maria Tent and shots of Jägermeister. Sure, I’d been partially soaking up the booze with overpriced burgers, toasties, Korean style chicken wings, haloumi fries and by thrashing around to my own interpretive dance moves to Right Here, Right Now, but still.

The result? I woke up the next morning, breathed out and braced myself for the cumulative head throb that never came.

Nothing was playing the maracas behind my eyes, there was no creeping existential dread, just my usual craving for real coffee and a portion of loaded hash browns. It was a similar story with my two friends.

That’s not to say we felt particularly fresh either, no one was running any marathons or completing an Iron Man competition that day. (Or ever.)

Look, I’m not saying consuming Korean pear juice before drinking is a miracle, but it really does seem that prevention is better than the cure.

It worked for us and if nothing else, it made my Monday morning feel a little less like crawling uphill through broken glass, which is a result in itself.

Bring on Wilderness next year…

What does a nutritionist think?

While Rob was impressed by his experience with PrePear, registered dietitian and nutritionist, Jennie Norton doesn’t think this will necessarily be the case for everyone.

She told Stylist: ‘Expect a modest result at best.

‘For reliable hangover prevention, stick with pacing drinks, alternating with water, eating balanced meals and capping total units below national low-risk guidelines.

‘Korean pear juice is a safe add-on for most adults, but it is not a stand-alone hangover shield.’

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