A Danish study of millions of
supermarket transactions revealed that beer purchasers were more likely to by unhealthy foods than wine purchasers.
This offers some insights into why wine consumption is consistently linked to health benefits while the
consumption of beer and spirits is not.
Instead of relying on self reporting consumption of food and alcohol, the grocery receipts revealed what people are actually purchasing and presumably consuming. With 3.5 million transactions in the survey, it does seem likely that most people are eating what they buy, so the odds that people coincidentally happen to be purchasing beer and junk foods without consuming them is low. Beer buyers purchased foods like cold cuts, chips, pork, butter, margarine, sausages and soft drinks, while wine buyers put olives, fruits, vegetables, poultry and vegetable oils into their shopping bags.
