Sunday Squeeze: Your Green Juice Hangover Remedy

New Year’s is always overrated, no? You spend months trying to coordinate your group of friends to agree on a plan; you have to dish out money on an overpriced ticket to a club or bar; you spend even more money on an outfit; it ends up being just like any other Saturday night out; one of your girlfriends inevitably gets in a fight with her boyfriend and starts crying; another friend inevitably starts barfing and you have to be on hair-holding duty; and you end your night by standing in the freezing cold, unable to hail a cab because they’re all full.

And then you spend the next day in the fetal position on your couch, nursing regrets and a champagne hangover.

While you may crave greasy food, or even go the hair-of-the-dog route (my personal favorite hangover remedy), what your body really needs to recover is hydration and nutrients. Oh hello, green juice!

Not to sound like some holier-than-thou Gwenyth Paltrow-type here, but I swear my body now craves a fresh green juice when I’m hungover. It goes back to the whole the-less-you-eat-it-the-less-you-crave-it phenomenon. When you limit the crap you eat, your body starts to crave the good stuff.

Any juice is a great hangover remedy (hydrates you while pumping your bod full of the nutrients it’s deprived of), but today I’ve put together a super gimmicky one comprised of a bunch of foods that are known to help cure hangovers. You’re probably seeing the asparagus and thinking I’m batshit crazy, but I promise you don’t even taste it. Honestly, the only thing I tasted in this juice was the lemon. It was good!

Here’s a synopsis of why each ingredient is a hangover helper:

• Ginger reduces nausea and eases indigestion.
• Apple (and any fruit) juice has lots of fructose, which gives the body instant energy. Its water content is high to help hydrate the body, and it’s packed with vitamins.
• Kiwi and spinach are packed with potassium, which is typically depleted after a night of drinking.
• Tomatoes contain lycopene, which reduces inflammation.
• Asparagus boosts levels of enzymes that break down alcohol.
• Lemon helps sooth your stomach and adds vitamin C to the mix.

For the record, while I do honestly start most hungover days with a juice, I usually end them with pizza and a pint of ice cream. Let’s be real here.

What’s your go-to hangover cure?