Nutritional deficiencies in German middle-class male alcohol consumers: relation to dietary intake and severity of liver disease

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to compare the nutrient intake and the nutritional status between German middle-class alcohol consumers and non-drinkers. Design: Cross-sectional study using patients with different stages of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and healthy volunteers. Setting: Southern Germany. Subjects: Seventy-six hospitalized German middle-class alcohol consumers with different stages of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and 22 healthy control subjects. Methods: Subjects and controls were nutritionally assessed and mineral and vitamin content was measured in blood and urine. Results: When compared with controls, alcohol consumers had significantly higher intakes of total calories, but intake of nonalcoholic calories did not differ between groups (P < 0.05). Among drinkers, there was a decrease in percentage of energy derived from protein and fat and a significant increase in carbohydrates (P < 0.05). With the exception of vitamin E, micronutrient intake of alcoholics was equal to that of controls; however, blood vitamin (vitamin C, retinol, lycopene, a-and g-carotene) and trace element (selenium, zinc) concentrations of alcohol-drinking patients were lower than those of nondrinkers.

Serum concentrations of β-carotene, vitamins C and E, zinc and selenium are influenced by sex, age, diet, smoking status, alcohol consumption and corpulence in a general French adult population

“…An alcohol-related effect on zinc plasma level was not found despite the involvement of zinc in alcohol metabolism and given that zinc intakes in drinkers are generally reported lower than in nondrinkers (Bergheim et al, 2003). Drinkers exhibited higher serum selenium level than nondrinkers as opposed to some previous reports (JablonskaKaszewska et al, 2003;Manari et al, 2003).…”

“…Most of the studies report that alcohol consumption result in reduced antioxidant vitamin intakes and status (Bergheim et al, 2003;Manari et al, 2003). However, in the French cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (E3N-EPIC) involving 100 000 middle-aged, highly educated women (Kesse et al, 2001), after adjustment for energy derived from alcohol, increasing alcohol consumption was associated with higher intake of vitamin E.…”

Alleviation of hepatic oxidative stress by Chinese herbal medicine Yin-Chen-Hao-Tang in obese mice with steatosis

“…Under toxic condition (e.g. alcohol abuse) selenium levels of liver tissue decreased (25). Thus, SBP substitution in toxic-induced fibrosis may yield a therapeutic strategy targeted against SBP downregulation.…”

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“…α-tocopherol supplementation to rats chronically exposed to ethanol has been shown to prevent the formation of Mallory bodies and inflammatory infiltration of the liver but not increased apoptosis, inspite of increased antioxidant gene expression [6]. Several groups have shown that subjects with alcoholic liver disease have been shown to have significantly lower plasma vitamin E levels [9,37,38] and a higher degree of redox imbalance [7]. However, the results of long-term vitamin E supplementation have been controversial and inconsistent [5,14,39,40] although positive results have been reported in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver [20,21].…”