New research suggests that women who enjoy a glass of wine are less likely to gain weight than those who are teetotal.
The new study of more than 19,000 women flies in the face of previously received wisdom i.e. that alcohol consumption goes hand in hand with inevitable weight gain.
Lu Wang, Medical Instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston, asked women of 39+ with a healthy body weight to describe their drinking patterns. Over the next 13 years researchers who were monitoring the women found the non-drinkers gained the most weight. Further, the women’s overall weight gain appeared to decrease as alcohol intake increased.
Researchers suggest that a calorie from alcohol is less likely to cause weight gain than other foodstuffs because of the way the particular body deals with it. In regular drinkers, the liver turns the surplus energy into heat rather than fat.
There’s also a difference in the type of alcohol consumed. Red wine is associated with lowest weight gain, beer and spirits with the highest.
