It’s Complicated, It’s Confusing, It’s Enough to Drive You … Never Mind

The relationship between alcohol and weight has always seemed fairly cut and dry: consuming the former can lead to an increase in the latter. After all, alcohol is about as calorie-dense as a non-dairy fluid can be. A simple can of beer delivers as many calories as a small bag of potato chips, and beer drinkers — or wine or cocktail drinkers, for that matter — aren’t renowned for stopping at one.

But it’s not that simple, according to several recently released reports on the matter by various researchers. Here are some of their more counterintuitive findings:

• A National Center for Health Statistics study of 37,000 people found that those men and women who drank one alcoholic beverage per day the most often, i.e. from three to seven days a week, had the lowest body mass index. However, persons who drank infrequently but drank a lot when they did imbibe were the most overweight. The bottom line: One drink a day, every day — healthy weight; seven drinks one day a week — overweight.
• An eight-year study of over 19,000 U.S. women with normal body mass indexes found that while those who drank a glass of wine or its equivalent every day were 30 percent more likely to be overweight than non-drinkers, those who drank more than that amount were 70 percent less likely than abstainers to become obese. This is in line with a major 10-year study of 138,000 men and women published in 1991, which found that female drinkers had a 15 percent lower BMI on average than non-drinkers (but which found no such connection between alcohol and weight gain in men).
• And finally, a British consumer group, CAMRA, has begun a campaign to remind people that since alcohol is the main source of calories in any alcoholic beverage, the least fattening beverage choice would be beer, which packs less calories per ounce than wine or distilled spirits. In the words of one CAMRA exec, “(B)eer can supplement a healthy lifestyle if consumed in a responsible manner.” Two caveats, however: First, the same can be said about any food or beverage, from gravy to fudge. Second, CAMRA happens to stand for Campaign for Real Ale, which represents the European brewing industry.

Thoroughly confused? Bottoms up.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

Diet-to-Go Meal Delivery: $25 Off 1st Week’s Order with Coupon “calorielab25″

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 and is filed under Obesity causes, Obesity research and studies. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.