Anyone who drinks alcohol has had a bad experience somewhere along the line. 

The good news is that scientists reckon we can learn from past drinking episodes and that can inform our choices about drinking in the future. 

However, that choice may be related more to the calories in drinks than their alcoholic content. 

Researchers have already established that people don’t consume as much food when they are reminded of an earlier meal just before eating. 

Now academics from the University of Portsmouth in England have taken a deep dive into what we drink. 

The team studied 50 women aged 18 to 46 who were randomly split into two groups. 

The first group was asked to recall a recent alcohol experience in detail, and the second had to recall a car journey, as a control. All participants were then asked to consume a vodka-based drink, at any rate that felt comfortable to them. 

Controls were put in place to distract them so they didn’t realise the amount of alcohol they consumed was being monitored and recorded. 

The findings revealed individuals asked to recall a previous drinking episode took longer to consume their beverage, suggesting a lower motivation for alcohol.  

Our theory is that women may have had less desire for alcohol because they wish to avoid excess calories.  

Dr Lorenzo Stafford, a multisensory researcher in the School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, said, “Following on from previous work, we think an important part of the observed effect was that individuals in the alcohol memory cue condition had to estimate the number of alcohol calories they consumed. 

“Our theory is that females may have had less desire for alcohol because they wish to avoid excess calories, which could also be linked to work showing that females are more likely to change their consumption habits because they are more receptive to the risks alcohol poses to health and weight.”