|
|
||||||||
Original Research Communication |
1 From INSERM U521, Villejuif, France; the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), KIT Health, Amsterdam.
2 The E3N group is Regine Camard, Cecile Le Corre, Lyan Hoang, and Maryvonne Niravong.
3 Supported by the French League against Cancer, the European Community, the 3M Company, the Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale, Institut Gustave Roussy, and Institut the National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale. E Kesse is supported by a grant from the Association for Research on Cancer.
4 Address reprint requests to F Clavel-Chapelon, INSERM U521, Equipe E3N, 39 rue Camille Desmoulins, 94805 Villejuif Cedex, France. E-mail: clavel{at}igr.fr.
See corresponding editorial on page 279.
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Objective: We examined whether eating habits differed according to alcohol consumption in a large cohort of French women.
Design: This was a cross-sectional study of the French cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (E3N-EPIC). The cohort was established in 1990 and includes 100000 women born between 1925 and 1950. Dietary data were obtained between 1993 and 1995 by using self-administered food-frequency questionnaires. About 73000 questionnaires were analyzed, and women were placed into 7 categories of alcohol consumption.
Results: After adjustment for energy derived from alcohol, increasing alcohol consumption was associated with a higher total energy intake, a higher percentage of energy intake as protein and lipids, and higher intakes of cholesterol, fatty acids, retinol, iron, and vitamin E. Conversely, energy provided by carbohydrates decreased with increasing alcohol consumption, as did ß-carotene intake. Increasing alcohol consumption was associated with higher consumption of animal products, cheese, potatoes, oil, bread, and breakfast cereals and with lower consumption of vegetables and dairy products.
Conclusion: In this population of middle-aged, highly educated French women, marked differences in dietary patterns and nutrient intakes were found according to alcohol consumption. Part of the detrimental effect of alcohol on health may be due to the less healthy dietary habits of drinkers. This points to a confounding role of eating habits and nutrient intakes in the relation between alcohol and health.
Key Words: Alcohol intake dietary patterns alcoholic beverages cohort study nutrients energy E3N-EPIC European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition food-frequency questionnaire women France
| INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Moderate alcohol consumption (1 or 2 drinks daily) can beneficially affect life expectancy (4, 5), notably through a protective effect on coronary artery disease, mediated by an increase in HDL concentrations, independently of the type of alcoholic beverage consumed (6). For cancer, there is convincing evidence that a high alcohol intake is a strong risk factor for malignancies of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, and liver (7). However, moderate consumption of wine was related to a lower risk of cancer death in a recent study (8).
Probably the most important confounding factor in epidemiologic studies, at least with respect to coronary artery disease and cancer, is cigarette smoking, which in many studies is correlated with alcohol consumption (911). The potential confounding role of dietary habits, both good and bad, is unclear, but is in obvious need of further study. To determine whether eating habits differ significantly according to the level of alcohol consumption, and whether the dietary correlates of alcohol consumption offer health benefits or disadvantages according to the level of alcohol consumption, we analyzed data from participants in the French cohort (Etude Epidémiologique de Femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale) of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (E3N-EPIC) (12).
| SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The dietary questionnaire analyzed in the present study was sent to the participants between June 1993 and July 1995. It comprised 2 parts and was sent with a booklet of photos to facilitate the estimation of portion sizes. The first part included questions on the consumption (frequency and quantity) of 66 food groups. The second part included qualitative questions. Overall, the questionnaire covered the daily consumption of 238 food items.
Both the questionnaire and the illustrated booklet were validated previously (14, 15). The validity of the self-administered questionnaire was tested in a sample of 115 women. In that assessment, the answers recorded on the questionnaire at the beginning of the validation study were compared with the mean responses on twelve 24-h dietary recalls assessed monthly on the different days of the week. The highest correlation coefficient (0.71) was for alcoholic beverages (14).
After the questionnaires were mailed to 95644 women and 2 reminders were mailed to nonresponders, 77580 questionnaires were collected. A total of 4676 subjects were excluded. Exclusion criteria were absence of consent for external health follow-up by the health insurer in case of dropout (n = 1010), double answers (n = 18), miscoded answers (n = 2075), missing values for all dietary items on an entire page (n = 143) or for a whole meal in the dietary questionnaire (n = 1339), and daily energy intake <2092 kJ (500 kcal) (n = 91). Statistical analyses focused on the remaining 72904 questionnaires. Extreme values (for 1.6% of the subjects), ie, those differing from the mean by 4 SDs, were replaced by the mean.
The following alcoholic beverages were listed in the questionnaire: wine, beer, cider, fortified wines and aperitifs (port, vermouth and muscat, punch, and kir), and spirits (anis seed liquors, whisky, gin, and vodka). Alcohol consumption was translated into daily amounts of ethanol, assuming that 100 mL of a beverage containing 10% alcohol (roughly equivalent to one glass of wine) contains 8 g ethanol. Subjects were placed into 7 categories according to their daily alcohol consumption: nondrinkers, >0 to 2 g, >2 to 4 g, >4 to 8 g, >8 to 16 g, >16 to 32 g, and >32 g (heavy drinkers).
Statistical analyses were performed by using SAS statistical software (version 8.00 for WINDOWS NT; SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC). Analysis of variance (GLM, Tukey option, Bonferroni option) was used to compare certain general characteristics of the study population with alcohol consumption and to identify foods for which consumption differed between categories of alcohol consumption, taking into account multiple testing. Only the most discriminatory dietary variables were analyzed. The null hypothesis, ie, that there was no significant difference in food consumption between alcohol categories, was rejected at a P value <0.05. Foods were first classified according to the value of the F statistic and then a principal components analysis (PRINCOMP) was applied to the variables identified as discriminatory. Relations between nutrient intake and alcohol consumption were tested by using linear or quadratic tests for categorized alcohol consumption or ethanol intake (REG). Daily food items were categorized as over- or underconsumed by comparing the mean value for each category of alcohol consumption with the mean value calculated for all participants.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
410% of total alcohol intake.
|
|
|
Intakes of selected micronutrients were also computed (Table 4
). Consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, and monounsaturated fatty acids was 22.0%, 22.4%, and 35.9% higher, respectively, in heavy drinkers than in nondrinkers. Cholesterol intake was 31.6% higher in heavy drinkers than in nondrinkers. Intakes of retinol, vitamin E, and iron increased with alcohol consumption, whereas intake of ß-carotene decreased. Intakes of vitamin C and fiber had a bell-shaped relation with alcohol consumption, whereas calcium intake had a U-shaped relation.
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Few studies (1619) have investigated differences in food and nutrient intakes according to drinking habits in women, and the results of such studies are discordant. Mannisto et al (18) found a decrease in total energy intake with increasing alcohol consumption, whereas 3 studies (16, 17, 19) reported an increase in total energy intake, but the results of these studies diverged when energy from ethanol was excluded. Like us, Toniolo et al (16) found an increase in nonalcohol energy intake with increasing alcohol consumption. Veenstra et al (17) reported drinkers and nondrinkers to have similar nonalcohol energy intakes. Mannisto et al (18) found lower nonalcohol energy intakes in heavy drinkers than in nondrinkers, and Colditz et al (19) observed a U-shaped distribution of energy intake according to alcohol consumption. There is general agreement on the existence of a negative relation between BMI and alcohol consumption in women (20, 21). Colditz et al (19) found a U-shaped distribution of BMI, with an increase in BMI in heavy drinkers (>50 g ethanol/d). Our results differ in that BMI, even after adjustment for nonalcohol energy intake, increased with increasing alcohol consumption. Yet, our population also differs in its distributions of both BMI and alcohol consumption.
Some studies of both sexes showed that the contributions of fat and protein to nonalcohol energy intake are greater in heavy drinkers than in nondrinkers, whereas the contribution of carbohydrates is lower (22, 23). However, these findings were less convincing for women than for men, possibly because of the wider range of alcohol consumption among men.
Few studies have shown significant differences in micronutrient intakes according to alcohol consumption, but between-person variability was shown to be low. D'Avanzo et al (23) showed that retinol and iron intakes increase with alcohol consumption, whereas fiber consumption decreases. Toniolo et al (16) found no relation between alcohol consumption and intakes of cholesterol, retinol, and vitamin E, but found a negative association with intakes of vitamin C, fiber, and ß-carotene. We also found that female nondrinkers had significantly higher ß-carotene intakes than did drinkers.
Mannisto et al (18) reported results similar to ours for meat, cheese, oil, egg, fish, cereal, fruit, and milk consumption, but found higher vegetable and lower coffee consumption with increasing alcohol intake. Toniolo et al (16) also found a decrease in fruit and dairy product consumption with increasing alcohol intake, but no association with meat, poultry, fish, egg, vegetable, pasta, or rice consumption. Tjønneland et al (24) compared the dietary habits of wine drinkers, drinkers of other alcoholic beverages, and nondrinkers. Relative to other alcoholic beverages, wine was associated with healthier eating habits (consumption of fruit, fish, vegetables, and salad and use of olive oil for cooking).
The confounding effect of diet on the relation between alcohol consumption and health has also been studied. Lower vegetable and fruit consumption were found to be related to the risk of cardiovascular disease (25, 26), and folate deficiency was linked to an increased breast cancer risk among alcohol drinkers (27, 28). Substantial alcohol consumption, associated with low folate and methionine intakes, was found to be related to an increased risk of colon cancer (29, 30). These studies illustrate the importance of controlling for dietary intake when analyzing the relation between health and alcohol. Indeed, part of the detrimental effect of alcohol on health may be due to unhealthy dietary habits. However, diet is unlikely to explain all the effects of alcohol on health, particularly the beneficial effect of moderate drinking, because moderate drinkers did not have healthier diets than nondrinkers in our study.
The validity of reported alcohol consumption is questionable, and it is thus important to stress that the dietary assessment methods used here have been validated. In most validation studies, correlation coefficients for ethanol intake, as measured by the questionnaire and the reference method, were higher than for other dietary items (31, 32).
To rule out a possible selection bias due to the fact that dietary questionnaires were sent only to women who had answered the 2 previous questionnaires, a first analysis was performed on a random subsample of the E3N-EPIC population who had answered a 24-h recall interview aimed at calibrating dietary data within the EPIC cohorts (33). Of the 4084 women who participated in the calibration study, 120 had not answered the dietary questionnaire. No significant differences in nutrient intake or food consumption were found between respondents and nonrespondents to the dietary questionnaire. Further comparisons showed that respondents tended to be more physically active than were nonrespondents.
In terms of recommended nutrient intakes for the French population (34), the E3N-EPIC participants had relatively healthy eating habits: energy contributions from lipids, protein, and carbohydrates were close to recommended values, although iron intake was low and vitamin A intake was high. A comparison of our results with the results of a dietary survey (35) conducted in northern France showed that, on average, the E3N-EPIC population consumed more carbohydrates and less fat (measured by their contribution to total energy intake) than did the survey population, but similar amounts of protein. Regional dietary variations may account for some of these differences.
The representative nature of the E3N-EPIC population is questionable because 88% of the women had completed secondary school, and alcohol consumption is known to increase with educational level (23, 36, 37). A study conducted in 1993 of a random sample of 602 French women aged 1875 y showed that 36.7% of those aged 4554 y and 30.7% of those aged 5564 y never consumed alcohol, compared with 11.7% and 13.8%, respectively, in our population. However, average consumption was similar, at
1.5 glasses/d (37). Although the distribution of ethanol intake in our population differs from that in the general French population, the size of our sample made it possible to analyze subgroups of drinkers.
In conclusion, our findings suggest that part of the detrimental effect of alcohol on health may be due to the unhealthy dietary habits of drinkers. Because most nutrients showed a dose-response gradient across alcohol consumption categories, our results do not support the hypothesis that the beneficial effect of moderate alcohol consumption on overall mortality is related to a healthier diet among drinkers than among nondrinkers.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
C. Ma and A. Jatoi Wine for Appetite Loss: "How Do You Know?" J. Clin. Oncol., April 1, 2007; 25(10): 1285 - 1287. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. Johansen, K. Friis, E. Skovenborg, and M. Gronbaek Food buying habits of people who buy wine or beer: cross sectional study BMJ, March 4, 2006; 332(7540): 519 - 522. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. A. Breslow, P. M. Guenther, and B. A. Smothers Alcohol Drinking Patterns and Diet Quality: The 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Am. J. Epidemiol., February 15, 2006; 163(4): 359 - 366. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. Tehard, C. M. Friedenreich, J.-M. Oppert, and F. Clavel-Chapelon Effect of Physical Activity on Women at Increased Risk of Breast Cancer: Results from the E3N Cohort Study Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., January 1, 2006; 15(1): 57 - 64. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Stranges, T. Wu, J. M. Dorn, J. L. Freudenheim, P. Muti, E. Farinaro, M. Russell, T. H. Nochajski, and M. Trevisan Relationship of Alcohol Drinking Pattern to Risk of Hypertension: A Population-Based Study Hypertension, December 1, 2004; 44(6): 813 - 819. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. C Renaud, R. Gueguen, P. Conard, D. Lanzmann-Petithory, J.-M. Orgogozo, and O. Henry Moderate wine drinkers have lower hypertension-related mortality: a prospective cohort study in French men Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, September 1, 2004; 80(3): 621 - 625. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
N. Whitehead and L. Lipscomb Patterns of Alcohol Use Before and During Pregnancy and the Risk of Small-for-Gestational-Age Birth Am. J. Epidemiol., October 1, 2003; 158(7): 654 - 662. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
E. B. Rimm and M. J. Stampfer Wine, Beer, and Spirits: Are They Really Horses of a Different Color? Circulation, June 18, 2002; 105(24): 2806 - 2807. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. L Klatsky Diet, alcohol, and health: a story of connections, confounders, and cofactors Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, September 1, 2001; 74(3): 279 - 280. [Full Text] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |