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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2010 Dec 14:341:c6731.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.c6731.

Effect on gastric function and symptoms of drinking wine, black tea, or schnapps with a Swiss cheese fondue: randomised controlled crossover trial

Henriette Heinrich  1 , Oliver Goetze, Dieter Menne, Peter X Iten, Heiko Fruehauf, Stephan R Vavricka, Werner Schwizer, Michael Fried, Mark Fox
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effect on gastric function and symptoms of drinking wine, black tea, or schnapps with a Swiss cheese fondue: randomised controlled crossover trial

Henriette Heinrich et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To compare the effects of drinking white wine or black tea with Swiss cheese fondue followed by a shot of cherry schnapps on gastric emptying, appetite, and abdominal symptoms.

Design: Randomised controlled crossover study.

Participants: 20 healthy adults (14 men) aged 23-58.

Interventions: Cheese fondue (3260 kJ, 32% fat) labelled with 150 mg sodium (13)Carbon-octanoate was consumed with 300 ml of white wine (13%, 40 g alcohol) or black tea in randomised order, followed by 20 ml schnapps (40%, 8 g alcohol) or water in randomised order.

Main outcome measures: Cumulative percentage dose of (13)C substrate recovered over four hours (higher values indicate faster gastric emptying) and appetite and dyspeptic symptoms (visual analogue scales).

Results: Gastric emptying was significantly faster when fondue was consumed with tea or water than with wine or schnapps (cumulative percentage dose of (13)C recovered 18.1%, 95% confidence interval 15.2% to 20.9% v 7.4%, 4.6% to 10.3%; P<0.001). An inverse dose-response relation between alcohol intake and gastric emptying was evident. Appetite was similar with consumption of wine or tea (difference 0.11, -0.12 to 0.34; P=0.35), but reduced if both wine and schnapps were consumed (difference -0.40, -0.01 to -0.79; P<0.046). No difference in dyspeptic symptoms was present.

Conclusions: Gastric emptying after a Swiss cheese fondue is noticeably slower and appetite suppressed if consumed with higher doses of alcohol. This effect was not associated with dyspeptic symptoms.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00943696.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no authors had financial support for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. The authors confirm their independence from the funders.

Figures

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Fig 1 Gastric emptying measured as average percentage dose recovery of carbon 13 (error bars show standard errors) after ingestion of cheese fondue taken with white wine or black tea followed by a shot of cherry schnapps
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Fig 2 Estimated mean values (95% confidence intervals) of maximal doses of 13C recovered in breath. Larger values indicate faster emptying. An inverse relation is evident between amount of alcohol consumed and rate of gastric emptying
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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