Brits on average 'spend £1,000' on hangover comfort food

Brits spend about £1,000 ($1,348) each on hangover comfort food every year, research suggests.

The average UK adult suffers two hangovers a month, each lasting 36 hours — during which time, they spend £42 on comfort food to help get them through, according to a survey of 2,400 by food supplement company Survivor.

This totals an average annual spend of £1,008 on comfort food following a few drinks.

This includes takeaways, snacks and drinks, with go-to favourites meals being a fry up (24%), McDonald's (18%), KFC (15%), toast (13%) and a roast dinner (9%).

Meanwhile, the top drinks are fruit juice (34%), water (33%) and tea or coffee (16%). A small 7% admitted they regularly turn to a “hair of the dog” drink to ease their symptoms.

READ MORE: UK business leaders often 'self-medicate' poor mental health with alcohol, drugs

“A pleasant drink can be a marvellous thing — however, 36 days a year is a long time to be hungover,” said Survivor CEO Laurence Cardwell.

“When you take into consideration the cost of purchasing the alcohol and £1,000 a year spent on comfort food too, it’s an expensive pastime. Together, that is a lot of lost time and money.”

UK adults have about eight alcoholic drinks a week – 32 a month – with just 4% being lucky enough to “never” experience a hangover, the survey found.

What's more, with the average Brit having two hangovers a month, each lasting about 36 hours, this means 96% of UK adults spend about 36 days of the year hungover.

Britons said the hangover symptoms they experience most often are dehydration (79%), nausea (55%) and headaches (40%).

Of those who feel nauseous, three in 10 (28%) have been sick after a night of drinking, while almost half (46%) admitted to being sick the following day – during the hangover phase.

READ MORE: Fifth of businesses failing to offer drug and alcohol support to employees

The study also found that UK adults need to consume at least six drinks — one after the other — in order to feel negative affects the following day.

When they get home after a night out, Brits either go straight to bed (36%), eat junk food (30%) or stay up and watch TV (17%). Just one in four drink water and take some paracetamol or ibuprofen before going to sleep.

Prof. Dr. Kubiena, advisor to Survivor, warned: “Drinking alcohol in any quantity can be very harmful to the human body.”

“We would always advise taking precautions when drinking, and drink responsibly – not only reducing your risk of waking up hungover the next day, but also limiting the amount of damage you’re doing to your body in the long run.”

Watch: What is inflation and why is it important?