Dietary influences on alcohol intake: a review.

Alcohol intake is affected by both environmental and inherited biological mechanisms. In the early history of alcohol research, caloric interactions were among the most intensely studied of the environmental factors, and a large body of evidence was obtained that indicated that nutrition can affect alcohol drinking. Much of this evidence still stands today but appears to have been largely overlooked and to be in danger of being forgotten.

Differences between alcohol-preferring (AA) and alcohol-avoiding (ANA) rats in the prodynorphin and proenkephalin systems.

The motivation to drink alcohol and the eventual risk of becoming addicted are in part genetically determined. Because opioid peptides are considered central to motivated behaviors, we have analyzed opioid peptides in relevant areas of the brain of two outbred lines of rats: the alcohol-preferring [Alko Alcohol (AA)] line who voluntarily drink alcohol and the alcohol-avoiding [Alko Non-Alcohol (ANA)] line with negligible intake. (Met)enkephalinArg6Phe7 (MEAP) was measured as a marker of proenkephalin, and dynorphin A, dynorphin B, and (Leu)enkephalinArg6 as markers of the prodynorphin system.

Hypothesis: factors involved in the mechanisms regulating food intake affect alcohol consumption.

In addition to being a pharmacological agent, alcohol (ethanol) can also be considered a food; the body can utilize effectively its calorific contribution. The consumption of alcohol has in many respects the same characteristics as the intake of food. In animal experiments, food intake decreases in relation to the calorific value of the alcohol consumed; in human studies, various results have been obtained from no compensation to full compensation for the contribution from alcohol.

Alcohol elimination and the regulation of alcohol consumption in AA and ANA rats.

Previous studies have usually found that animals with either higher alcohol elimination rates or ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase, EC1.I.I.

Dietary regulation of voluntary alcohol consumption in rats. Influence of a high protein diet and a methylene blue diet.

The importance of glucose homeostasis for high voluntary alcohol consumption was studied in alcohol-preferring (AA) and alcohol-avoiding (ANA) rats fed either a control diet, a protein-rich diet or a control diet supplemented with methylene blue. AA rats on the control diet were found to receive 13.6% of their daily energy intake from alcohol.