One of the understood reasons why wine and alcohol in general are good complements to a meal is that it has been shown to stimulate short-term food intake. While is it is not known what exactly causes
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this increase in food intake after alcohol consumption, there are several theories. First, it is possible the consumption of alcohol reduces the signals that tell the stomach that it is full. Second, alcohol consumption could trigger an increase in reward signaling of food (in other words, telling the brain that “ooo that food is really good for you!”, when in fact it may not be).
A new study published in the journal Appetite aimed to study the effect of alcohol consumption on food intake and to gain a better understanding of the mechanism behind this phenomenon.
24 healthy men were recruited for this study and were randomly assigned to consume either a vodka/orange juice mixture (20g alcohol; considered “moderate” levels) or orange juice without the alcohol. After consuming the beverage, participants were asked to either eat 40 gram piece cake or “pretend” to eat cake. Known as “modified sham feeding”, those participants asked to “pretend” to eat the cake had to put the cake in their mouths, process/chew it per the study instructions, and then spit it back out into a cup without actually swallowing any of it. Those asked to eat the cake did the same processing/chewing procedure, but actually swallowed the cake instead of spitting it out.
The food reward was determined by the amount of food ingested during a lunch 45 minutes after the alcohol/cake intervention. Foods were categorized as being high fat, low fat, savory, and sweet. Participant “liking” and “wanting” of these food categories was also recorded.
We’ve seen over and over again that the Mediterranean diet is associated with improved health over many systems, including the cardiovascular system, nervous system, and digestive system (just to name a few). Specifically here on this blog, we’ve seen studies showing that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial for reducing the
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A new study published in the European Journal of PreventiveCardiology aimed to take the research on the Mediterranean diet and diabetes a step further, and examined the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and mortality in people with diabetes.
1995 Italian adults with diabetes participated in this study. Food consumption habit information was collected by using self-reported questionnaires, after which results were given Greek Mediterranean Diet scores. Participants were followed for a total of 4 years.
Important Findings:
After 4 years, 109 patients had died (51 of them due to cardiovascular factors).
A 2 point increased in the Greek Mediterranean Diet Score was associated with an average 37% decrease in overall mortality in patients with diabetes.
A similar association was found when only those with cardiovascular mortality were the focus of analysis.
Adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet reduced the risk of death in diabetes patients.
The individual factors in the Mediterranean diet that contributed to this decreased risk of death and overall mortality in diabetes patients were:
Moderate alcohol consumption.
High consumption of cereals.
High consumption of vegetables.
Reduced consumption of meat and dairy products.
Overall, the results of this study suggest that for those people with
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diabetes, adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet reduces the risk of mortality and death. Specifically, moderate consumption of alcohol, as well as high consumption of cereal and vegetables and low consumption of meat and dairy products were all associated with this reduced risk of mortality and death in diabetes patients.
