Women drinking lightly less likely to gain weight
Women drinking lightly less likely to gain weight
Consuming light-to-moderate drinks might help women keep slim, a new study suggests.
The study involved 19,220 women, 39 years or older, who had normal body-mass index at the start. The study lasted for an average of 13 years. Although, on average, the women all tended to gain weight as time progressed, the amount of weight gained decreased as alcohol consumption went up, said study researchers at Brigham &Women\’s Hospital in Boston.
Among those who benefited from light drinking, abstainers gained the most, according to the study published in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. There could be any number of reasons for the findings, including different ways that women metabolize alcohol, compared with men, the researchers explained.
Also, the researchers pointed out, women tend to substitute alcohol for other foods, whereas men tend to simply add alcohol to everything else they\’re ingesting.
\”The impact of alcohol consumption on body weight needs to be considered in the context of energy balance,\” said study author Dr. Lu Wang, an epidemiologist with the division of preventive medicine at the hospital.
\”Among women, those who regularly consume light-to-moderate alcohol usually have a lower energy intake from non-alcohol sources. On the other hand, alcohol intake tends to induce increased energy expenditure beyond energy contents of the consumed alcohol in women. Taken together, regular alcohol consumption in light-to-moderate amount may lead to a net energy loss among women.\”
\”Our study results showed that middle-age and older women who have normal body weight initially and consume light-to-moderate amounts of alcohol could maintain their drinking habits without gaining more weight, compared with similar women who did not drink any alcohol,\” said Wang.
