Cigarette smoking is associated with alcohol intake. This may be one reason that smokers are leaner than non-smokers.
Cigarettes and alcohol are lifestyle habits that are associated with one another. Generally, those that tend to smoke also tend to drink. Such associations are interesting nutritionally because both habits are associated with disease, and yet both habits are also associated with particular dietary patterns. While heavy smoking is associated with lung and vascular diseases, heavy drinking is associated with liver diseases. However, more moderate use of both drugs may not be as damaging as is claimed by authorities. In the case of alcohol, moderate drinkers are actually healthier than teetotallers. Further, moderate smokers who consume reasonably healthy diets do not show higher levels of disease than non-smokers, as evidenced through the French Paradox. Dietary interactions with alcohol can entice bias in interpretation of data because for example, heavy drinking is also associated with a failure to eat properly. Many of the associated effect of heavy drinking could therefore be said to relate to malnutrition rather than the alcohol per se.
Cigarettes and alcohol and their interrelationship with diet are therefore of interest. A number of studies have investigated the dietary practices of those who consume cigarettes and alcohol. In one such study, researchers investigated the dietary practices of drinkers and smokers in North America1. The results showed that consumption of cigarettes and alcohol was generally greater for men than women, with the highest level of consumption being particularly skewed towards men. Drinkers were far more likely to smoke than non-drinkers. As cigarette consumption increased, the amount of alcohol consumed also increased. Drinkers consumed more total energy per day than non-drinkers, and this association only disappeared after the authors controlled for food intake. Therefore the drinkers were adding alcohol to their total daily intake, and not displacing food calories with alcohol calories. In addition, for men and some sub-groups of women, as alcohol levels increased, carbohydrate levels fell significantly.
When the authors assessed the body weights of the subjects, they found that the heaviest men and women were those who neither drank nor smoked. This association was strongest for women. Not only that, but the non smoking, non drinking women weighed substantially more than their smoking and drinking counterparts. This was inspite of the fact that the non smoking, non drinking women ate significantly fewer calories per day. This adds more evidence to argue against the ‘eat-to-much, do-too-little’ theory of weight gain, and shows that weight gain estimations based on energy intake are pseudoscience. Interestingly, the smokers also ate more fat than the non-smokers, suggesting that not only did they consume more calories, but they also undertook different dietary practices. One very interesting finding of this study was the fact that alcohol tended to replace carbohydrate in the diet. If that caused sugar consumption to fall, this might explain the lower body weights in those that drink alcohol.
