Is a hangover an illness?

Your hangover, an illness? It 100% is, according to one German court.

Can you now clock your hangover up as an illness to get you a sick day? Probably not, but one German court has declared that yes, in fact, a hangover is an illness and should be treated as one by law. Or at least the laws that relate to food and drink advertising.

Just days after the launch of the 186th Oktoberfest in Munich, a case was taken to a court in Frankfurt, Germany, about a firm accused of making illegal claims about the healing benefits and capabilities of their anti-hangover shots and powders.

The court ruled that illnesses include “temporary disruptions” to the body, including tiredness and nausea, which definitely sounds like a hangover to us. The firm was claiming they could cure these disruptions but the court felt otherwise.

Read more: The best Irish hangover cures

The superior regional court ruled that food products and drinks could not be advertised as “preventing, treating or healing a human illness."

“Information about a food product cannot ascribe any properties for preventing, treating or healing a human illness or give the impression of such a property,” the ruling added.

“By an illness, one should understand even small or temporary disruptions to the normal state or normal activity of the body.”

H/T: Daily Mail

* Originally published September 2019.