You Are What You Eat: The Impact of Nutrition on Alcohol and Drug Use

ABSTRACT

Background: Experimental research has shown that nutrition influences behavioral deviance. Objectives: The current project addresses the impact of nutrition on problem alcohol and drug use in a nationally representative sample of US adults. Methods: The study relies on the daily dietary nutrition data and the substance use measures in the 2007–2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Results: The findings generally show that macronutrients increase the odds of substance use and micronutrients decrease the odds of substance use, especially among females. In addition, nutrient imbalance is a particularly strong predictor of substance use for both males and females. Depression partially accounts for the relationship between dietary nutrition consumption and substance use. Conclusions: Nutrition represents a promising extension of the biosocial perspective in substance use disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Nutrition
• alcohol
• drugs

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

1 Owing to the small number of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine users in the sample, separate analyses of each type of drug is not possible. Analyses of marijuana show the same substantive results as analyses of other drug use (results not shown).

2 Total caloric intake cannot be included in the models with specific nutrients due to collinearity.