body + soul reveals the truth behind the booze myths. THINK you can avoid a hangover this holiday season by using a few old tricks? While the statistics suggest that we're drinking a little less than we used to, average out the figures and they still equate to each Australian over the age of 15 drinking more than 10 litres of pure alcohol every year. Beer is our preferred tipple, followed by wine, spirits, pre-mixed drinks and cider, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Christmas and New Year holiday is often a time when we indulge in more booze than usual. But when you're deciding whether to have one more for the road, keep these myths in mind. You might avoid a hangover or worse. Myth: Eating something will soak up the booze While food does slow down the absorption, once the alcohol enters your bloodstream it will remain in your body until it's processed. However, eating can slow down drinking and thereby reduce the amount of alcohol you have at each sitting. "No amount of food will stop a hangover if you drink too much," Sondra Davoren, of the Alcohol Policy Coalition, says. But you're likely to not drink as much if you're eating. The downside? We make less healthy food choices when we drink, and that kebab or late-night pizza could end up causing indigestion, sleeplessness and contribute to weight gain. Myth: If I have a coffee or an energy drink, I'll feel fine Coffee or caffeinated energy drinks may help you feel more awake after a big night but they don't lessen the effects of alcohol. "Coffee and energy drinks don't help process the alcohol and they just add another toxin to your body," Ms Davoren says. Your body is already focused on removing the alcohol and it tries to process it first because it recognises it as a toxin. Coffee and energy drinks make your body work harder. Alcohol is a diuretic and so is caffeine. The liver processes alcohol and uses water in the body to flush out toxins. But that diverts fluid away from major organs, including your brain, which is one reason why you get a headache when you drink too much. Myth: A vitamin or electrolyte drink will get me back on track These drinks help you hydrate but they're often high in sugar. And they won't stop you having a headache," Davoren says. Drinking water is the best way to rehydrate your body and to recover from alcohol. Myth: Alcohol has health benefits anyway This is like people eating dark chocolate for the antioxidants. The health benefits of alcohol are overestimated. Nobody recommends taking up drinking for health," Ms Davoren says. Some research shows that moderate - no more than one or two glasses a day - may prevent heart disease in some people, but as soon as you drink more than that the health problems outweigh any benefit. Once you go over the National Health and Medical Research Council recommendations - a maximum of two standard drinks a day, or four on a single occasion - you increase your risk of long-term effects such as depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, heart failure and mouth, throat, bowel, liver and breast cancer. Myth: I'm only hungover because I mixed my drinks "I don't know what the origin [of this myth] is, but mixing your drinks doesn't make any difference to your hangover," Davoren says. Alcohol is alcohol - if you have too much wine or too much beer, it has the same effect. It puts stress on your liver, dehydrates your body and leaves you with a cracking headache most of the time. However, mixing drinks does make it harder to keep track of how much you've thrown back during the course of an evening, so you could end up having more than you realise. More healthy tips can be found on www.bodyandsoul.com.au