Pop a cork: good news about alcohol and weight control

This is cause for celebration in my book: according to the results of a large and very well designed research study, drinking alcohol does NOT make you gain weight. Au contraire, even! This from a New York Times article earlier in the week:

"Dieters are often advised to stop drinking alcohol to avoid the extra calories lurking in a glass of wine or a favorite cocktail. But new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity.

The findings, reported this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 19,220 United States women aged 39 or older who, at the start of the study, fell into the “normal weight” category based on their body mass index. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston tracked the women’s drinking habits over 13 years. About 60 percent of the women were light or regular drinkers, while about 40 percent reported drinking no alcohol."

While the non-drinkers in the study gained an average of 9 pounds over 13 years, moderate drinkers gained only 3 pounds, on average. The article goes on to explain the study in detail and offers explanations as to why this is so. Also it reports that for men, drinking alcohol does correlate with weight gain and obesity.

Click here to read the entire article.