Moderate alcohol intake and spontaneous eating patterns of humans: evidence of unregulated supplementation.

Alcohol's effects on eating were investigated by paying 92 adult humans to maintain 7-d diaries of everything they ingested, the time of ingestion, their subjective state at the time of ingestion, and the number of people present at the time of ingestion. Total intakes, meal sizes, meal compositions, pre- and postmeal intervals, and deprivation and satiety ratios were compared between nondrinkers and drinkers and between meals associated with alcohol ingestion and those without. Univariate and multivariate prediction of meal size and of postmeal interval were also calculated to ascertain alcohol's contribution to the regulation. The results suggest that alcohol supplements rather than displaces macronutrient-supplied calories, that alcohol is associated with prolonged meal durations, and that alcohol calories may be unregulated. Other apparent changes in the meal pattern appear to be artifacts of time of day and meal duration.