Traditional West Virginia holiday remedies: Appalachian cures for overindulgence

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Holiday overindulgence has a long association with West Virginia, where homecomings are celebrated in a big way. Though it now boasts one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in the U.S., that wasn't always the case.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, distilling "moonshine" was a vital part of the rural economy. Farmers who converted their corn into whiskey preserved its value, creating a portable commodity that circulated widely in mining, timbering, and steelmaking communities.

In small towns and large, saloons served as social hubs for a predominantly male labor force, and despite state prohibition (which was enacted five years before national prohibition), moonshining and bootlegging kept liquor consumption levels high.

After World War II, however, alcohol use declined sharply as the coal camp system declined and evangelical Protestantism, which does not condone drinking, expanded in rural areas. Better roads allowed miners to live outside coal camps.

By the early twenty-first century, economic, religious, and regulatory changes had transformed West Virginia into one of the states with the lowest per-capita rates of alcohol use and binge drinking.

Traditional holiday remedies in West Virginia

Despite a decrease in consumption, old-timers still have their remedies for holiday overindulgence that rely on a blend of folk medicine, immigrant traditions, and frontier pragmatism to “settle the stomach” or “clear the head” after too much food and drink.

While a few of these remain in widespread use, many were household knowledge across the U.S. and Appalachia well into the mid-20th century.

• Chicken broth or soup beans broth — believed to “reset the stomach.”
•  Burnt toast tea (charcoal in the bread acted as an adsorbent).
•  Blackberry leaf tea — for general stomach complaints.
•  Hot compresses — a universal folk strategy.
•  Catnip tea — used for digestive discomfort in children.

Remedies by West Virginia Region

When discussing West Virginia culture, one can choose from a multitude of cultures influenced by the state's geography. Most simply, it can be examined through the lens of three chief cultures—that of the first mountain settlers in the east and central state, the coal miners who settled in the rugged southern mountains, and the immigrant workers who settled in the northern valleys.

Its northern cities, southern coalfields, and eastern mountains all had their traditions.

Wheeling and the Upper Ohio Valley: City Remedies

Weirton, Wheeling, Morgantown, and dozens of other small industrial cities in northern West Virginia were home to a vast number of immigrants who brought eastern traditions to the state.

1. Bicarbonate & Mineral Remedies

Wheeling’s German and Eastern European heritage brought with it the widespread use of baking soda water, “salts,” and later, commercial patent remedies such as Alka-Seltzer (developed in nearby Ohio). A pinch of baking soda in warm water was commonly taken for “sour stomach,” especially after rich Christmas foods like kielbasa, roast goose, or plum pudding.

2. Bitters, Tonics, and “Stomach Drops”

Urban drugstores such as those along Market Street or at Centre Market sold stomach bitters, usually Gentian-based, derived from German apothecary traditions. Herbalists and pharmacists also prepared “stomach drops”—small, hard lozenges flavored with mint or anise, believed to calm digestion.

3. Ginger, Caraway, and “City Sauerkraut Tea”

Industrial Wheeling had a strong German food presence. “Sauerkraut tea”—a warm, strained liquid from heated sauerkraut—was touted as a remedy for indigestion or bloating after big meals. Caraway-seed hot drinks were also used, borrowed from Central European settlers.

4. The Beer Cure

Some of Wheeling’s brewery workers swore by small draughts of flat beer the morning after spirits-heavy parties. It wasn’t “hair of the dog,” but rather a belief that yeasts aided digestion.

The Allegheny Highlands: Frontier & Scots-Irish Remedies

The most remote reaches in West Virginia are hidden away in the Allegheny Mountains, a vast highland region in which many Scots-Irish settled in the early 1800s.

1. Sassafras Tea

In Randolph, Pocahontas, and Pendleton counties, families boiled sassafras root for a bright-red tea believed to “thin the blood” and “clear richness of food” from the system. It was used after both overeating and consuming rich winter foods, such as cured pork.

2. Apple Cider Vinegar & Honey

A classic farm remedy across the Alleghenies: a tablespoon of vinegar with honey in warm water. This was one of the region’s most common digestive aids, long before becoming a modern health fad.

3. Spicewood or Wintergreen Tea

Mountain families steeped spicebush (Lindera benzoin) twigs into a tea used for gas and stomach upset. Wintergreen tea served a similar purpose.

4. Hot Toddy (Medicinally Justified)

While often associated with colds, many used a small toddy with honey and lemon to relax stomach cramping after overindulgence. Frontier physicians sometimes recommended it.

Southern Coalfields: Practical & “Old Folks” Remedies

This extremely rugged region, characterized as a maze of steep-sided ridges, was the source of much of the state's most valuable coal reserves. Black, immigrant, and mountain cultures blended here and shared their traditions.

1. Peppermint Candy in Hot Water

Peppermint was inexpensive and available in every company store, so a cup of hot water poured over crushed peppermint candy became a universal remedy for “heaviness” after eating.

2. “Dope” or Cola Syrup

By the early 20th century, many coal camps used cola syrup (sold at drugstores) to settle nausea or indigestion—the same syrup pharmacies used for fountain drinks. Some used flat Coca-Cola for the same effect.

3. Ginger Water or Pickled Ginger

Companies recruiting miners from the Deep South and Eastern Europe helped spread ginger remedies. Canned pickled ginger (sold for canning or baking) was sometimes chewed to ease gas and bloating.

4. Hot Salt Pack

A purely Appalachian remedy: salt heated in a pan, poured into a cloth sack, and laid against the stomach. Used for both overeating and menstrual cramps.

5. Coal Camp “Liver Purge”

Usually, in the days after a big holiday meal, sulfur and molasses or Epsom salts are dissolved in warm water. The idea was to “clear out the system.” Not pleasant, but widely practiced well into the 1940s.

Together, these traditions paint a vivid portrait of a state whose communities have long met holiday excess with the same ingenuity, humor, and homegrown resourcefulness that define the state itself.

Taken as a whole, these remedies remind us that West Virginians have always relied on simple ingredients, shared wisdom, and a strong sense of place to weather the season’s indulgences.

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