Anyone who drinks alcohol has had a bad experience somewhere along the line.
The good news is that scientists believe we can learn from past episodes of alcohol use and that this can influence our future drinking choices.
However, this choice may be related more to the calories contained in the drinks than to their alcohol content.
The researchers have already established that people don’t consume as much food when they are reminded of a previous meal just before eating.
Now academics at the University of Portsmouth in England have delved deeper into what we drink.
The team studied 50 women aged between 18 and 46 who were randomly divided into two groups.
The first group was asked to recall in detail a recent experience with alcohol, while the second was asked to recall a car trip, as a control. All participants were then asked to consume a vodka-based drink, which they found comfortable.
Controls were put in place to distract them so they didn’t realize the amount of alcohol they consumed was being monitored and recorded.
The results revealed that people who were asked to recall a previous drinking episode took longer to consume their drink, suggesting less alcohol motivation.
Our theory is that women may have had less cravings for alcohol because they want to avoid excess calories.
Dr Lorenzo Stafford, a multisensory researcher at the University of Portsmouth’s School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences, said: “Following previous work, we believe that an important part of the observed effect was that individuals in the cue condition of alcohol memory had to estimate the number of alcohol calories consumed.
“Our theory is that women may have had less alcohol cravings because they want to avoid excess calories, which could also be linked to work, showing that women are more likely to change their drinking habits because they are more receptive to risks that alcohol entails.” health and weight”.
