Elsevier

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 90, Issues 2–3, 28 February 2007, Pages 368-375
Physiology & Behavior

Acute effects of an alcoholic drink on food intake: Aperitif versus co-ingestion

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.09.028Get rights and content

Abstract

To compare the effects on appetite and energy intake (EI) within a meal and across 4 days of drinking wine either before (aperitif) or with (co-ingestion) a meal, 11 men attended the laboratory on three occasions. On each occasion participants were given breakfast in the laboratory then 3 h later returned for a two course (garlic bread, pizza) lunch, then recorded food intake for the remainder of the day and the next 3 days. In the control condition, participants ate lunch ad libitum; in the aperitif condition 375 ml of red wine was consumed 20 min before lunch; and in the co-ingestion condition 125 ml of red wine was consumed with the starter and 250 ml of red wine was consumed with the main course. Subjective ratings of appetite and mood were administered before and after the meal. EI at lunch was greater when wine was consumed (p < 0.01) (aperitif: 6436 ± 435 kJ; co-ingestion: 6254 ± 417 kJ) compared to control (5125 ± 262 kJ). In particular, intake of the starter was enhanced by wine consumption. Having wine as an aperitif significantly influenced subjective ratings of light headedness and fatigue. These results suggest that the effects of wine on appetite are immediate, and stimulate food intake early in the meal. Total EI during the test days was significantly higher than during subsequent days revealing a tendency to overeat in the laboratory, exacerbated by drinking wine before or with lunch. However, lean healthy men adjusted total EI on the days following the laboratory in all conditions.

Introduction

The relationship between alcohol consumption and body weight regulation is complex. Alcohol contributes 6.5% of total daily energy intake in the UK [1]. Alcohol is energy dense providing 29 kJ (7 kcal) per gram, second in density to dietary fat, and has several interesting properties. Alcohol energy has no storage capacity, consequently it takes precedence in the oxidative hierarchy with the potential to suppress the oxidation of other substrates and to affect energy storage. It has psychoactive properties influencing a number of neurochemical and therefore behavioural systems. For example, alcohol lifts inhibitions, including dietary restraint [2]. It has a specific synergistic effect with dietary fat [3], possibly as a result of a shared, weak satiating capacity, a tendency to promote overconsumption and potential to increase the palatability of foods. Individuals differ in the efficiency with which alcohol is metabolised [4] and overweight individuals, susceptible to weight gain, may be particularly vulnerable to positive energy balance following alcohol ingestion. Given the increase in both obesity [5] and binge drinking in the UK [6] it is important to understand the effects of alcohol on food intake and potential consequences of alcohol intake for weight regulation [7], [8], [9], [10], [11].

In the short term energy derived from alcohol is additive to total energy intake with no evidence of compensation for this energy within a meal [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23]. In moderate doses, alcohol has a mild stimulatory effect on food intake [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. In these experiments, alcohol is either given as an aperitif, leaving a period of around 20–30 min before presenting the meal, or the alcoholic beverage is administered along with the meal. Aperitif administration, particularly when food deprived, could enhance the psychoactive effects of alcohol by the facilitative effect of immediate alcohol absorption through the stomach [24] producing a stimulatory effect on energy intake. In contrast, co-ingestion might simply produce an additive effect on total EI since both gastric emptying and absorption of alcohol are delayed by the presence of solid food [25]. However, mode of administration has not been compared within the same experiment; therefore it is unclear if serving alcohol as an aperitif stimulates intake relative to serving with the meal. The present experiment set out to compare mode of administration in order to test the hypothesis that a delay between drinking and eating stimulates further energy intake within a meal compared to drinking alcohol with the meal (co-ingestion).

Alcohol consumed with high fat meals produces a synergistic effect on total energy intake [16], [17]. Given the association between diets high in fat and increased body fat [26], the potential mechanism through which alcohol promotes weight gain, could be a function of overconsumption via weak satiating effects of both alcohol [27] and fat [28] and relatively poor compensation. Therefore, in the present study mode of administration of alcohol was examined when foods high in fat were offered and the potential for energy compensation was assessed by recording dietary intake for 3 days following administration.

Lean men are generally good at compensating for high energy preloads [29], [30], [31], and in particular, Foltin et al. [31] reported that the energy received from an alcoholic beverage was in part compensated for in normal weight men. Further to this Cordain et al. [32] demonstrated that the daily addition of 270 ml of red wine to the habitual diet over a 6 week period did not result in weight gain in lean men. Thus this group of men remained in energy balance. Clevidence et al. [33] revealed that lean and overweight women did not use energy from alcohol with equal efficiency. In order to examine effects of alcohol consumption on energy intake over many days, it is important, therefore, to involve lean healthy males as a first step, since the response of overweight or obese individuals may differ markedly from that of lean individuals. The potential for energy compensation following alcohol administration was assessed in the present study using diet records in the days after the laboratory sessions in lean men within a free-living, habitual diet context.

In summary, the aims of the present experiment were to compare the effects of an alcoholic drink on food intake when it was served with a test meal or as an aperitif 20 min before the meal; and to examine compensation for the drink coupled with the test meal over a 3 day period in lean, healthy men.

Section snippets

Participants

Twelve men aged eighteen to fifty were recruited from the staff and students at the University of Liverpool via recruitment posters. Participants were screened using a general demographics questionnaire prior to recruitment to ensure that they were suitable, that is within normal weight range (BMI < 25 kg/m2) were unrestrained eaters with a score of 2.5 or less on the DEBQ-R [34], that they consumed between 2–21 units/week and were self-reported non-smokers. Overall, the participants were young

Data analysis

All analyses were conducted on SPSS (v 11.1, SPSS, Chicago, USA). Energy intake between conditions was compared in a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures (sphericity assumed). Subjective appetite and mood ratings were analysed over time (pre and post lunch) and condition (control, aperitif and co-ingestion) in a 2 × 3 analysis of variance with repeated measures. Changes (delta) in appetite and mood were calculated by subtracting post lunch ratings from pre lunch ratings and

Energy intake

Data from eleven participants were subjected to analysis since one participant consumed less than 403 kJ at lunch because of self-reported illness on one occasion. Data from this participant was then excluded from all further analyses. Effect of order on EI was checked and no main effect of order assignment was found. However, EI at lunch was significantly higher when wine was consumed at lunch [main effect of condition: F(2,20) = 6.85, p < 0.01; see Fig. 1]. Pairwise comparisons revealed that EI

Discussion

Consuming wine with or before a meal increased the amount consumed at lunch compared to having no alcohol. Energy intake from lunch was enhanced by 25% when the alcohol was consumed as an aperitif 20 min before lunch and by 22% when consumed with lunch compared to control. In line with our previous investigations [13], [14], [15], a moderate amount of alcohol had a small, but significant short-term stimulatory effect on energy intake, specifically in this case, increasing intake of the first

Acknowledgement

This research was funded in part by a BBSRC studentship awarded to SJC.

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