Alcohol, food intake and energy balance
Studies on alcohol and food intake provide a remarkable level of consistency in demonstrating that alcohol consumption is associated with minimal compensatory down-regulation of energy intake from other foods. Thus, it is concluded that alcohol energy is largely additive to the normal diet and other explanations are sought for the paradoxical association between alcohol and bodyweight. However, studies on energy and nutrient balances clearly show that ethanol is a nutrient that the body utilizes efficiently and that alcohol calories do count. Balance studies conducted over several weeks confirm this concept. The interpretation of (epidemiological) observa-tions on alcohol consumption and body weight in daily life is complicated by many factors like reporting errors and the confounding influence of other subject characteristics. Alcohol could be associated with or induce a higher level of physical activity, the most variable component of daily energy expenditure.