Is Your Weekend Routine Secretly Ruining Your Gut?

It always starts innocent enough: a late lunch at Burleigh Pav, the ocean sparkling in the background, just a couple of cocktails to ease into the weekend. Fast forward a few hours and the DJ’s on fire, the sun’s gone down, and suddenly shots are lined up across the table. The music’s pumping, everyone’s laughing louder, and what was meant to be a chilled afternoon has morphed into a full-blown night out.

By midnight you’re weaving your way to a kebab shop, ocean breeze still clinging to your clothes, sauce dripping down your wrist as you swear this is the best feed you’ve ever had. Eventually, as the first streaks of dawn stretch over the beach, you collapse into bed still half-dancing in your head.

We’ve all been there. It’s fun, it’s messy, it’s the weekend. But while you call it a big night out, but your gut’s not celebrating; it’s counting three brutal hits in one go. And that’s why the next morning isn’t just a hangover; 

It’s a gut hangover.

Every big night has a starting point and it usually begins with the drinks. 

While alcohol feels like liquid confidence on the dance floor, your gut experiences it very differently. The first sip seems harmless, maybe even relaxing, but your gut notices it straight away. Alcohol starts to shift the balance of your microbiome, lowering beneficial bacteria and giving harmful ones more room to grow (Turner et al., 2024). Even this mild disruption can slow digestion and change how food is broken down.

As the drinks keep flowing, alcohol begins to chip away at the gut lining itself. Normally, your intestinal wall is sealed tight by “junctions” between cells, like grout between tiles, that keep bacteria and toxins locked safely inside the gut. Alcohol weakens those junctions, making the barrier more permeable or “leaky.” Once that happens, fragments of bacteria slip into the bloodstream. Your immune system sees them as intruders and fights back with inflammatory chemicals (Turner et al., 2024).

That inflammatory “sickness response” is why the morning after feels less like simple dehydration and more like the flu. Brain fog, pounding headaches, fatigue, nausea, they’re all tied to your immune system battling toxins that escaped through the weakened gut wall. Research shows that even a single night of heavy drinking can cause measurable leakiness and spikes in inflammatory markers like TNF-α and IL-6 (Turner et al., 2024).

Meanwhile, inside your body, alcohol is being broken down into acetaldehyde, a toxic by-product that attacks the “glue” holding gut cells together (Turner et al., 2024). The longer and heavier the session, the more those gaps widen, the more toxins escape, and the harder your immune system has to fight.

And the damage doesn’t vanish once the hangover fades. In some cases, inflammation has been shown to stay elevated for up to 10 days after a heavy night (Turner et al., 2024). So while you might feel “back to normal” by midweek, your gut and immune system could still be in recovery mode.

To make matters worse, not all drinks are equal. Darker spirits like whiskey, rum, and red wine contain congeners; extra compounds formed during fermentation that intensify oxidative stress and make hangovers hit harder and last longer (Turner et al., 2024).

After the drinks, the hunger always hits. You’re standing in line at 2am, eyes locked on a kebab or a greasy burger, telling yourself it’s exactly what you need to “soak up the alcohol.” And sure, it tastes like heaven in the moment. But your gut doesn’t see it that way.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs), the bread, sauces, fried meats, chips are a nightmare for gut health. They strip away the protective mucus lining, reduce good gut bacteria, and give more inflammatory species room to thrive (Rondinella et al., 2025). And remember, your gut wall is already weakened from the alcohol. The additives in late-night takeaway, things like emulsifiers and artificial sweeteners make that wall even leakier, letting more unwanted fragments slip into your bloodstream (Rondinella et al., 2025).

In the short term, that’s why you wake up puffy, bloated, or sluggish. But over time, the damage adds up. Diets high in UPFs are strongly linked with higher risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even mental health issues through the gut–brain axis (Vitale et al., 2023). One large review found that people who ate the most UPFs had a 37% higher risk of diabetes and a 32% higher risk of obesity compared to those who ate the least (Vitale et al., 2023).

So while that dirty kebab feels like a reward at the end of the night, your gut experiences it as the second blow, feeding the wrong bugs, starving the good ones, and making the barrier even weaker. And here’s the kicker: this isn’t just about feeling bloated the next morning. If nights like this become routine, the constant drip-feed of UPFs leaves your gut stuck in a cycle of low-grade inflammation that ripples into your energy, mood, and long-term health.

It’s 5am. The kebab’s gone, the drinks have worn off, and you’re finally crawling into bed. But here’s the catch: your gut is about to take its last hit, no real sleep.

Even if you manage to pass out, alcohol has a half-life of several hours. That means while your body is trying to rest, it’s still busy metabolising alcohol. Instead of deep, restorative sleep, you get light, broken rest. By morning, it feels like you barely slept at all.

For your gut, this is chaos. Your microbiome runs on its own circadian rhythm, syncing digestion, repair, and microbial activity to your body’s clock. Staying up late or “sleeping” under the influence of alcohol, throws this rhythm out of sync, leaving the gut lining leakier and fuelling inflammation (Sejbuk et al., 2024).

The disruption doesn’t stop there. A healthy microbiome produces compounds like serotonin, melatonin, GABA, and short-chain fatty acids, the very chemicals that help you fall asleep, recover, and wake feeling balanced. With poor or broken sleep, the bacteria that produce them drop away, leaving you short on your natural sleep aids (Sejbuk et al., 2024).

So while sunrise might end the night for you, your gut is still wide awake, struggling to repair itself and recover from the hits that came before.

One drink turned into shots, the kebab didn’t stand a chance, and sunrise came before sleep. Fun in the moment, sure but for your gut it’s a triple hit stacked into a single night. Alcohol toxins, greasy additives, and zero rest collide, and that’s why the next day feels so much worse than a hangover. It’s bloating, brain fog, crankiness, and sluggish digestion rolled into one.

And here’s the kicker: 

Most of us put our gut through this exact routine every Friday or Saturday night.

The good news? Your gut is tough. A healthy gut isn’t fragile; it’s resilient, leak-proof, and able to bounce back when given the right support (Van Hul et al., 2024). But after a night out, it does need some TLC.

Think of recovery in two stages:

1. Immediate care (the morning after):

Start gentle. Your body’s first priority is rehydration; water, coconut water, or a hydration formula to replace lost fluids and electrolytes. Once you can tolerate it, add something light and soothing like fruit, oats, or broth to ease digestion without overloading the gut.

2. Rebuild and reset (later that day or next day):

When your stomach has settled, it’s time to feed your microbiome.

• Fibre-rich foods → Vegetables, oats, and legumes help beneficial bacteria thrive.
  
  

• Polyphenols → Colourful plants, berries, and green tea encourage anti-inflammatory microbes.
  
  

• Probiotics & prebiotics → Fermented foods like yoghurt, sauerkraut, or kombucha, plus prebiotic fibres from bananas, garlic, and onions, help restore balance.
  
  

• Gut-supportive nutrients → L-glutamine, magnesium, and greens powders can support gut barrier repair.
  
  

• Prioritise sleep → The fastest way to reset your gut’s circadian rhythm is simply giving it proper rest.

Big nights out aren’t the enemy, they’re part of life. But while you’re making memories, your gut is working overtime. The key isn’t cutting the fun, it’s knowing how to support your body afterwards so you can bounce back with better energy, digestion, and resilience.

That’s where we come in. At ASN, we get it and we’ve done the research. Our team can help match you with the right supports, whether that’s liver health with Code Red, hydration from electrolytes, immune-strengthening supplements, or gut-focused essentials like probiotics and greens. Think of it as your recovery toolkit, designed with expert know-how and tailored to your lifestyle.

Shop with us in-store, online, or via Click & Collect and give your gut the support it deserves.

Rondinella, D., Raoul, P. C., Valeriani, E., Venturini, I., Cintoni, M., Severino, A., Galli, F. S., Mora, V., Mele, M. C., Cammarota, G., Gasbarrini, A., Rinninella, E., & Ianiro, G. (2025). The Detrimental Impact of Ultra-Processed Foods on the Human Gut Microbiome and Gut Barrier. Nutrients, 17(5), 859–859. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17050859

Sejbuk, M., Siebieszuk, A., & Witkowska, A. M. (2024). The Role of Gut Microbiome in Sleep Quality and Health: Dietary Strategies for Microbiota Support. Nutrients, 16(14), 2259–2259. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142259

Turner, B. R. H., Jenkinson, P. I., Huttman, M., & Mullish, B. H. (2024). Inflammation, oxidative stress and gut microbiome perturbation: A narrative review of mechanisms and treatment of the alcohol hangover. Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research, 48(8), 1451–1465. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.15396

Van Hul, M., Cani, P. D., Petitfils, C., De Vos, W. M., Tilg, H., & El-Omar, E. M. (2024). What defines a healthy gut microbiome? Gut, 73(11), 1893–1908. https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2024-333378

Vitale, M., Costabile, G., Testa, R., D’Abbronzo, G., Nettore, I. C., Macchia, P. E., & Giacco, R. (2023). Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. Advances in Nutrition, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advnut.2023.09.009