Cocktails During Meals Make People Eat More

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Health experts have gone back and forth for years about the benefits of moderate drinking but not much has been said about another aspect of this popular pastime, namely, eating.

It’s very common for diners to include an alcoholic beverage or two during a meal but a new study from the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research says that when people drink, they also tend to eat more.

This combination apparently undoes possible health benefits alcohol might have. To make matters worse, those who drink crave high-fat, savory dishes than food that was either low-fat or sweet.

The researchers experimented with two sets of 12 men, half drinking orange juice with vodka, screwdrivers, the other half consuming straight orange juice. When the situation was reversed on another day, the results were still the same: drinking alcohol boosted their intake of high-fat savory dishes.

When questioned later, the participants acknowledged that alcohol increased their enjoyment of and desire for fatty foods.

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