Convergence of alcohol consumption and dietary quality in adults who currently drink alcohol

The authors of a study published in the journal Nutrients state that ‘alcohol consumption and poor dietary habits are increasing in the United States, posing significant challenges to public health due to their contribution to chronic diseases such as liver failure. While associations between alcohol consumption patterns and diet quality have been explored, the relationship between specific alcoholic beverage types and diet quality remains under examined’. Their study compared diet quality among consumers of different alcoholic beverage types.
A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of 1917 current alcohol drinkers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) who completed a 24 h dietary recall survey. Diet quality was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), with higher scores indicating superior diet quality. Differences in HEI between consumers of various alcoholic beverage types were assessed, using wine-only drinkers as the reference group and controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, and metabolic syndrome variables.
Beer-only drinkers were more likely to have lower income, higher rates of cigarette smoking, and insufficient physical activity compared to other alcohol consumers. In the fully adjusted model, beer-only drinkers had an HEI score that was 3.12 points lower than wine-only drinkers. In contrast, liquor/cocktail-only and multiple-type drinkers had similar HEI scores to wine-only drinkers.
Beer-only consumption is associated with poorer diet quality among alcohol drinkers. Targeted patient education and public health campaigns may be effective in addressing the combined impact of alcohol consumption and poor diet quality on chronic disease risk.
Source: Ting P-S, Lin W-T, Liangpunsakul S, Novack M, Huang C-K, Lin H-Y, Tseng T-S, Chen P-H. Convergence of Alcohol Consumption and Dietary Quality in US Adults Who Currently Drink Alcohol: An Analysis of Two Core Risk Factors of Liver Disease. Nutrients. 2024; 16(22):3866.