Moderate alcohol drinking with meals is related to lower incidence of type 2 diabetes

Previous studies on alcohol drinking and health have largely ignored the potential impact of the timing of drinking. A team of researchers investigated the joint associations of the timing of alcohol intake with respect to meals (i.e., with meals or outside of meals) and the amount of alcohol consumed with the risk of type 2 diabetes.
A total of 312,388 current drinkers from the UK Biobank without type 2 diabetes at baseline were included. The association between the timing of alcohol intake with respect to meals and the risk of type 2 diabetes was examined.
During a median of 10.9 years of follow-up, 8,598 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were documented. After adjustment for covariates and the amount of alcohol consumed, consuming alcohol with meals was significantly associated with a 12% lower risk of T2D (HR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.93) than was consuming alcohol outside of meals. In addition, the timing of alcohol intake with respect to meals significantly modified the relations between the amount of alcohol consumed and risk of type 2 diabetes; the beneficial association of moderate drinking with type 2 diabetes risk was only observed in participants who consumed alcohol with meals, but not in others. Further analyses on various types of alcoholic beverages indicated that the beneficial associations between alcohol drinking with meals and type 2 diabetes were mainly driven by wine consumption. Moreover, the researchers found that when consumed together with meals, drinking more wine, rather than other alcoholic beverages, was related to lower concentrations of C-reactive protein.
In current drinkers, moderate drinking of alcohol, especially wine, with meals is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, the researchers conclude.
Source: Wang, Xiang Li, Yoriko Heianza, Lu Qi, Moderate alcohol drinking with meals is related to lower incidence of type 2 diabetes, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2022.