BACKGROUND: Because high dietary and blood n-3 (omega-3) fatty acids (FAs) are protective against coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death, the alcohol-associated increase in blood n-3 FAs could be considered an original mechanism of alcohol's cardioprotective effect. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to assess whether alcohol consumption is associated with concentrations of very-long-chain "marine" (eg, fish oil) n-3 FAs both in plasma and in red blood cell membranes. DESIGN: In the framework of the IMMIDIET (Dietary Habit Profile in European Communities with Different Risk of Myocardial Infarction: the Impact of Migration as a Model of Gene-Environment Interaction) Project, 1604 subjects (802 women-men pairs), aged 26-65 y, were enrolled in Italy, Belgium, and England. A 1-y-recall food-frequency questionnaire was used to evaluate dietary intake. RESULTS: In fully adjusted multivariate analyses, alcohol intake was positively associated with plasma eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and EPA + DHA concentrations (P