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Study Links Diet with Alcohol Drinking Patterns

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Brief Description:
Unhealthy alcohol drinking patterns may go hand-in-hand with unhealthy eating habits, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Transcript:
Schmalfeldt: Unhealthy alcohol drinking patterns may go hand-in-hand with unhealthy eating habits, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Breslow: We saw an association, but we can't tell you why we saw that, except that — I think, in general from previous studies you see that healthy behaviors tend to travel together.

Schmalfeldt: That was Doctor Rosalind A. Breslow, an epidemiologist in NIAAA's Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, and first author of the study. She said the purpose of the study was to determine the association between drinking patterns and diet quality, not to determine the causes for any such association. The study determined that healthier diets were, in fact, associated with healthier drinking patterns.

Breslow: For investigators the implication is, that in studies of alcohol and diet and also chronic disease outcomes, consider measuring alcohol quantity and frequency separately as well as or in place of the more standard measure, which is average volume — or quantity times frequency. For the public, I think — generally — it's just eat a healthy diet and drink in moderation.

Schmalfeldt: Dr. Breslow said the definition of "drinking in moderation" is no more than one drink per day for females, two drinks per day for males, as set forth in the sixth edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans — the federal government's science-based advice to promote health and reduce risk of chronic diseases through nutrition and physical activity. From the National Institutes of Health, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt in Bethesda, Maryland.

This page was last reviewed on June 27, 2006 .

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