Wine drinking and diet in Italy

Objective: To investigate the relation between wine drinking and intake of selected indicator foods, which may vary in various populations. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of the comparison group of a case- control study. Setting: A network of teaching and general hospitals from six Italian areas . Subjects: 5642 control subjects (3261 females and 2381 males) aged 20-74 y (median age 58 y), admitted for acute, non-neoplastic conditions unrelated to alcohol consumption. Participation rate was over 95%. Intervention: Trained interviewers collected information using a structured and validated questionnaire. The average intakes of selected food items we re computed, together with the multivariate odds ratios (OR) of eating abov e the median of each food. Results: No appreciable difference in either sex for any food indicator con sidered (fruit, raw vegetables, cooked vegetables, salad and fish) was obse rved between abstainers, wine, and other alcoholic beverage drinkers. If an ything, female wine drinkers reported less frequently high consumption of s alad (OR=0.8) and raw vegetables (OR = 0.8), both estimates being of border line significance. Conclusions: In no instance did wine drinkers or mixed drinkers (who includ e a large proportion of wine drinkers, too) show an association with indica tors of healthy diet.