Bottoms up for skinnier bottoms

On March 8, a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a bi-monthly peer-reviewed medical journal, concluded that women who drink wine, beer or alcohol were less likely to gain weight.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have found that "normal-weight" women who "drink a light to moderate amount of alcohol appear to gain less weight and have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese than non-drinkers."

The study consisted of a questionnaire about daily alcoholic beverage intake with 19,220 women aged 39+ years old with a normal (18.5-25) body mass index (BMI). The follow-up spanned over 13 years and "women on average gained weight progressively. Women who did not drink alcohol at all gained the most weight, with weight gain decreasing as alcohol intake increased."

Lu Wang, M.D., Ph.D., led the study at Brigham and Women's Hospital, with a team of researchers explained,  "an inverse association between alcohol intake and risk of becoming overweight or obese was noted for all four types of alcoholic beverages [red wine, white wine, beer and liquor], with the strongest association found for red wine and a weak yet significant association for white wine after multivariate adjustment." These findings underscore the fact that there is, to date, no concrete proof that alcohol consumption can lead to obesity.

However the researchers noted, "further investigations are warranted to elucidate the role of alcohol intake and alcohol metabolism in energy balance and to identify behavioral, physiological and genetic factors that may modify the alcohol effects."

Archives of Internal Medicine: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/