Alcohol consumption follows a U-shaped curve, with low intakes showing no benefits to health, moderate intakes providing substantial health benefits, and then high intakes causing health problems. In addition, researchers have highlighted the differing dietary preferences between drinkers and non-drinkers, and this may explain some of the health benefits of moderate consumption. Interestingly, alcohol consumption is inversely associated with body mass index in women, but this pattern is not so for men. For example, research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 19911 investigated the alcohol consumption of 89538 women and 48493 men in relation to their body mass index. The authors reported that in woman drinking 25.0 to 49.9g/d alcohol, total calorie intake increased with alcohol consumption but this was accompanied by a decrease in carbohydrate consumption from 153g/d to 131g/d, mainly in the form of sucrose.
However in men, this same pattern was not repeated. In men the total calorie intake increased from 7575.6kJ/d to 8583.1kJ/d with 25.0 to 49.9g.d alcohol, and further to 9821.5kJ/d with ≥50g/d alcohol, but this was not associated with a reduction in body mass index or substantial change in other dietary factors. For comparison, in women the total calorie intake increased from 6276kJ/d to 7035.8kJ/d with 25.0 to 49.9g.d alcohol, and further to 8412.4kJ/d with ≥50g/d alcohol, and this was associated with a reduction in body mass index. In women, the intake of sweets and chocolate was inversely associated with alcohol intake while fat levels were only slightly associated with alcohol intake. The association between body mass index and alcohol intake in women remained after adjustments for both age and smoking. Other studies have also reported that administration of alcohol failed to produce weight gain is subjects.
These results support other findings and show that there is an inverse association between alcohol consumption and body mass index in women, but that this association is not present for men. The replacement of sucrose in the diet with alcohol is interesting because although it resulted in an increase in the total calorie intake, it appears that the energy contained within the alcohol is utilised in a less efficient manner, and so does not result in weight gain. This also supports other studies that show that substrate oxidation efficiency shows variation between macronutrients. The authors commented that the inverse association was not affected by cigarette smoking or by the choice of alcoholic beverage. The sex dependent effect suggests that sex hormones may be play a role in this effect. These results support other studies that show beneficial effect for moderate alcohol consumption.
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