Light alcohol consumption among subjects with a high-quality diet was significantly associated with a decreased risk of hypertension in Caucasians, and the risk of hypertension was not significantly increased with increasing alcohol consumption in Caucasians, Chinese, and Hispanics. “When examining health effects of alcohol on blood pressure, diet quality should be considered.”
Those are two key conclusions of a recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It involved looking a two national surveys involving multiple ethnic groups.
What’s a high quality diet? For Chinese, it was one with greater amounts of fruit, vegetables, and beans, while for Caucasians and Hispanics it was one with more whole grains, fruit, vegetables and nuts
On the contrary, in context of a diet calculated to be low quality the risk of hypertension was significantly increased in a linear fashion with increasing alcohol consumption in all groups except African Americans.
What’s a low-quality diet? Mainly those with higher intakes of red meat products.
When members of the International Forum on Alcohol Research reviewed they study, they found it to be a generally well-done and interesting study, but had concern that the authors may not have adjusted adequately for a factor strongly related to diet quality: socio-economic status. .