Effects of alcohol abstinence on spontaneous feeding patterns in moderate alcohol consuming humans

It has previously been found through observational techniques that moderate alcohol consumers tend to add alcohol calories to their diets without displacing macronutrient calories. The present investigation was an active manipulation of alcohol consumption to test for causation by instructing subjects to refrain from alcohol for five days. Twenty-five moderate alcohol consumers, identified with the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, were asked to complete a food intake diary for ten consecutive days during which they refrained from drinking any alcoholic beverages for either the first five days or the last five days. The subjects recorded in a diary everything they either ate or drank, the time at which the meal began and ended, their subjective state before and after the meal, and the number of other people present. Subjects' overall intake of food energy during the alcohol week was significantly higher than during the no alcohol week (2205 vs. 1829 kcal) and meals eaten during the alcohol week contained significantly more food energy than did meals eaten during the no alcohol week (649 vs. 541 kcal). Alcohol added additional calories to the diets without altering any other macronutrient intake. These results could have both health and weight loss implications.