WASHINGTON — Analysis of national data on alcohol and obesity indicates that drinkers are not fatter than nondrinkers but it also shows that drinkers have to be extra careful to eat nutritious food.
The study was based on 10,000 men and women between the ages of 18 and 74 who were involved in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The results were published by the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Much of the attention given to the drinking man`s diet a few years ago was based on the fact that alcoholic calories are empty ones and put on pounds but don`t offer adequate nutrition.
The Wisconsin researchers, headed by Harvey Gruchow, associate professor of medicine in the division of biostatistics and clinical epidemiology, found that it is not exactly true that you must cut out booze if you are trying to lose weight.
Because of the alcohol they drink, drinkers take in more calories than nondrinkers, the study claims. The bad news, however, is that depending on how much they drink their bodies often are missing important nutrients.
On average, statistics (adjusted for relative body weights, age and differences in eating and drinking patterns found in different age groups)
show men who drink take in 129 calories more a day than nondrinkers and women drinkers take in 48 calories more a day.
But for heavy drinkers, who drink five or more drinks a day, as much as 1,000 calories a day--one-third or more of a day`s total intake--may come from alcohol.
Moderate drinkers, who consume one to four drinks a day, also are often displacing important nutrients with alcohol.
Light drinkers, who have an average of less than one drink a day, do not face that risk, researchers say.
Overall, people who drink moderately or heavily use alcohol to replace from 15 percent to 41 percent of the calories others get from food.
Either the calories in alcohol are less efficiently used than others or they may interfere with the use of nonalcoholic calories, Gruchow thinks.
The researchers say their findings are ``welcome news for dieters who like to drink`` but mean that such people have to pay close attention to eating enough foods with a wide variety of nutrients.