An exploratory analysis of the relationship between ultraprocessed food consumption, alcohol intake, body composition, and cardiometabolic markers in individuals with alcohol use disorder.

Abstract

Background: Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are often high in salt, fat, and sugar and low in fiber and nutrients. Research has suggested that UPFs are associated with all-cause mortality and have recently been proposed to align with properties of addictive substances. While research suggests that people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have poor dietary habits in general, little is known about whether these people consume more UPFs than those without AUD. In an exploratory analysis, we examined how UPFs, diet quality, and added sugars consumption would be associated with other health outcomes in newly abstinent and currently drinking people with AUD and compared those to healthy individuals.

Methods: Participants were individuals with AUD who were newly abstinent or currently drinking, and healthy controls. Two weeks of food intake records in an outpatient setting were assessed for UPF, diet quality, and added sugars, and were compared between the three groups. Correlations were assessed across diet and alcohol measures, body composition, resting energy expenditure, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk scores within each group.

Results: All groups consumed similar poor quality diets with >55% usual foods from UPFs and >8% of energy intake from added sugars. Within groups, only the newly abstinent individuals showed associations between ASCVD risk and alcohol use history along with diet quality and body composition.

Conclusions: Despite the lack of statistically significant differences in diet quality measures between groups, nutrition support for healthier food choices in people with AUD, especially during alcohol recovery, should be carefully investigated.