AimsOur aim was to determine whether alcohol hangover is associated with eating unhealthy foods (hot chips, soft drink) or healthy foods (fruit, vegetables). DesignDaily diary study across 13 days (micro-longitudinal design)SettingA sample of young adults completed daily diaries in the university community. Participants605 young adults (71% women; ages 17 to 25; mean age 19.91 [SD 1.86] years) who reported drinking alcohol at least twice during the 13-day study period.MeasurementsEach day,

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... cipants reported on their hangover severity, their consumption of fruit, vegetables, hot chips (French fries), and soft drink, and their alcohol consumption from the previous day. Linear mixed models were used to examine within‐person associations between hangover severity and food consumption, by gender. Exploratory models also controlled for previous day alcohol consumption to acknowledge potential variability in hangover susceptibility. FindingsOn days when participants reported higher severity of hangovers, they reported consuming more hot chips (β = 0.09, p = 0.001), more soft drink (β = 0.08, p = 0.001) and less fruit (β = -0.06, p = 0.05). In our exploratory model controlling for previous day alcohol consumption, the predictive effect of hangover severity on hot chips (β = 0.08, p = 0.009) remained and significant interaction effects were observed between gender and previous day alcohol consumption on fruit (β = -0.03, p = 0.003) and vegetable (β = -0.03, p = 0.03) servings. ConclusionHigher hangover severity may lead to greater intake of some unhealthy foods such as hot chips. Higher alcohol consumption was significantly associated with decreased fruit and vegetable intake the following day for women but not for men. The association between high alcohol intake and poor eating is of concern and merits exploration in other settings.