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Australian data suggest that choice of beverage relates to lifestyle and personality EDITOR,--Morten Gronbaek and colleagues suggest that mortality is lower in association with a moderate intake of wine, unchanged in association with a moderate intake of beer, and increased in association with a moderate intake of spirits.1 In their study they used a different reference group of subjects for each beverage considered--a group comprising teetotallers and beer and wine drinkers for the spirits comparison and a group comprising teetotallers and spirits and beer drinkers for the wine comparison--which makes the findings difficult to interpret. More importantly, they consider that confounders are unlikely to explain their results. In a group of working men in Western Australia, …

In a randomised crossover trial 58 subjects aged 30-64 with mild untreated hypertension were allocated either to a control group eating a typical omnivorous diet or to one of two groups eating an ovolactovegetarian diet for one of two six week periods. A fall in systolic blood pressure of the order of 5 mm Hg occurred during the vegetarian diet periods, with a corresponding rise on resuming a meat diet. The main nutrient changes with the vegetarian diet included an increase in the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fats and intake of fibre, calcium, and magnesium and a decrease in the intake of protein and vitamin B12. There were no consistent changes in urinary sodium or potassium excretion or body weight. In untreated subjects with mild hypertension, changing to a vegetarian diet may bring about a worthwhile fall in systolic blood pressure.