osition and energy metabolism in patients with chronic alcoholism, without evidence of liver cirrhosis or malabsorption, compared with a group of social drinkers (1). Body composition was assessed by anthropometric measurements. Resting energy expenditure and substrate oxidation rate was measured by indirect calorimetry. Alcoholics showed a significantly lower body weight and a significantly lower fat mass compared with controls. There was a prevalence of fat distribution in the abdominal region in alcoholics. Daily energy expenditure was significantly higher in alcoholics. The total energy intake from food was higher in the control group. Alcoholics showed a higher lipid utilization than controls. This study suggests that alcoholics have a lower fat mass than non-alcoholics due to an alteration in substrate oxidation.
These researchers also looked at the effect of three months of abstinence from alcohol on 15 alcoholic patients who were able to achieve this abstinence (2). They found that although metabolic parameters had improved after one and two months, it took three months of abstinence for alcoholics to exhibit body mass indices, fat mass, basal metabolic rate/fat-free mass, and lipid and carbohydrate oxidation levels equal to those of controls.
Tremblay, Buemann, Theriault and Bouchard (14) looked at body fatness in active individuals in relation to fat and alcohol intake. Significant positive correlations were observed between the percentage of dietary energy as lipids and adiposity indicators. Subjects classified as low-fat consumers displayed significantly lower levels of fat mass and subcutaneous adiposity compared to high-fat consumers. Subcutaneous adiposity was doubled when subjects with high lipid and alcohol intake were compared to subjects with low lipid and alcohol intake. The difference was found mainly in truncal subcutaneous adiposity.
The effects of alcohol and dietary fat on spontaneou...