Objectives The preference for a specific alcoholic beverage may be related to an individual's overall lifestyle and health. The objective was to investigate associations between alcoholic beverage preference and several cardiometabolic and lifestyle factors, including adiposity, cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin (HbA_1c), liver enzymes and dietary patterns.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting The Dutch Longitudinal Nutrition Questionnaires plus (NQplus) Study.

Participants 1653 men and women aged 20–77 years.

Methods Diet, including alcohol, was assessed by Food Frequency Questionnaire. Based on the average number of reported glasses of alcoholic beverage, a person was classified as having a preference for beer, wine, spirit/no specific preference, or as a non-consumer. Mixed linear models were used to calculate crude and adjusted means of cardiometabolic and lifestyle factors across alcoholic beverage preference categories.

Primary outcome measures Anthropometric measures, blood pressure, lipids, HbA_1c, albumin, creatinine, uric acid, liver enzymes and dietary patterns.

Results In the study population, 43% had a wine preference, 13% a beer preference, 29% had a spirit or no specific preference, and 15% did not consume alcohol. Men who preferred wine had lowest measures of adiposity; the preference for alcoholic beverages was not associated with adiposity measures in women. Wine consumers had higher high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, lower HbA_1c and were more likely to follow the ‘Salad’ pattern. Beer consumers had highest levels of triglycerides and liver enzymes, and had higher scores for the ‘Meat’ and ‘Bread’ pattern.

Conclusions Few differences in dietary patterns across alcoholic beverage preference categories were observed. Those differences in cardiometabolic parameters that were observed according to alcoholic beverage preference, suggested that wine consumers have a better health status than beer consumers.