Effect of alcohol on postprandial lipemia with and without preprandial exercise

Objective: Different factors such as exercise habits and alcohol consumptio n may modulate postprandial lipid metabolism. What are the effects of alcoh ol on postprandial metabolism in untrained and trained individuals? Methods: The postprandial lipid response to an oral fat load (1 g fat per k g body weight (bw)) with and without alcohol (0.5 g/kg bw) was evaluated in physically trained healthy young men (T, n = 12, mean +/- SD age 27 +/- 3 years, BMI 21.6 +/- 1.4 kg/m(2)) after a premeal running session and in unt rained healthy young men (UT, n = 8, age 24 +/- 1 years, BMI 23.2 +/- 1.8 k g/m(2)) without a premeal exercise session. The T subjects ingested 35.5 +/ - 2.7 g alcohol, the UT subjects 38 +/- 0.6 g. Fat was given as butter and the carbohydrates as marmalade and zwieback (rusk). The T subjects received 1.20 +/- 0.05 g fat and 1.02 +/- 0.04 g carbohydrates per kilogram lean bo dy mass. The corresponding numbers for the UT subjects were 1.28 +/- 0.08 g and 1.20 +/- 0.06 g, The postprandial lipemia was observed fur an eight-ho ur period. Results: Alcohol led to an increase to the triacylglycerol area under the c urve (AUC) in the T subjects from 7.4 =/- 0.4 mmol/L * h on the control day to 11.3 +/- 0.9 mmol/L * h (p = 0.001), The corresponding numbers in the U T subjects were 13.4 +/- 2.3 mmol/L * h to 19.4 +/- 3.5 mmol/L * h (p = 0.0 04). Alcohol intake and physical activity training were the major determina nts of the triacylglycerol (TG) AUC in these subjects. Conclusion: The ingestion of a high fat meal in combination with alcohol le ads to an increased in the postprandial lipemia independently from the leve l of training. It is suggested that this unfavorable effect of alcohol and a high Fat diet could be modified by fat restriction or a combination of a premeal exercise session and a higher level of physical activity training.