6 Alcohol Myths You Have to Stop Believing

Woman in red with red nail polish holding alcoholic drink with a slice of lemon garnished on the rim of the glass — (Image credit: Getty Images)

In a word: nope. The amount you drink matters more in the long run. (Or the short run, if you're a lightweight.) So it doesn't really matter if it's liquor, wine, beer, that old Four Loko someone brought out as a joke...

Depends on the wine. Many wines are actually meant to be downed right away. And yes, that still applies to the bubbly stuff—aged Prosecco is no bueno.

Not always. Some beers, like stout, are actually lower in calories and alcohol content than their paler counterparts. Color isn't an indicator of anything other than the type of grain it came from.

Ah, hangovers. There will always be some new product promising to make this awful, awful, terrible feeling go away. But unfortunately, they are only aids. While a shower, coffee, and certain vitamins can help wake you up and get your body, uh, moving (so to speak), they won't actually help you process alcohol. Only time is the true healer.

Uh, you might be energized, sure. But alcohol is alcohol is alcohol—and it will dull your senses. Even worse, drinking caffeine with alcohol might energize you to the point that you drink for even longer amounts of time. Cue the hangover.

Well, yes. That's actually true—but the things you drink can have an impact on how awful you feel the next day. Avoid drinks with a lot of sugar, which will cause headaches. And if you're sticking to hard liquor, watch yourself—dark liquors (think: rum and whiskey) unfortunately have byproducts of fermentation called congeners, which, in a nutshell, have an effect on the enzymes in your body—leading to you not being happy with yourself the morning after.

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Samantha Leal is the Deputy Editor at Well+Good, where she spends most of her day thinking of new ideas across platforms, bringing on new writers, overseeing the day-to-day of the website, and working with the awesome team to produce the best stories and packages. Before W+G, she was the Senior Web Editor for Marie Claire and the Deputy Editor for Latina.com, with bylines all over the internet. Graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a minor in African history, she’s written everything from travel guides to political op-eds to wine explainers (currently enrolled in the WSET program) to celebrity profiles. Find her online pretty much everywhere @samanthajoleal.