From the Net

Forwarded by Bryan Gros

Another reason to homebrew???

Perhaps beer belly is a misnomer. While homebrew is basically fat-free, we're all aware that it contains calories. A good chunk of those calories are from the alcohol itself. And calories are calories, right? Well, a new study seems to indicate that alcohol calories might be different.

Winetrader magazine described a report appearing in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition by Loren Cordain, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Department of Exercise and Sports Science at Colorado State University.

They ran a six week study (in only males for some reason) where 14 subjects added two glasses of wine with dinner. After the six weeks, no significant differences were observed in several variables including body weight, body fat percentage, or resting metabolic rate. The article suggests that the alcohol calories may be metabolized by a different pathway, or it may have an effect on insulin which helps to get rid of the calories. The alcohol also did not have an effect on the absorption of other nutrients, as is often implied by anti-alcohol advertising.

This report, combined with other studies in Europe and the US suggest that regular, modest alcohol consumption is not harmful. The article also reports that the research of USDA scientist William Rumpler suggests that alcohol does not promote fat deposits in the body. A Finnish study found that daily drinkers were leaner than non-regular drinkers. (We'll have to assume they had a huge population or they controlled for the million other variables in their subjects.) The article concludes, "due to the great concern with calories and weight in the United States, it is anticipated that many more studies that further investigate the intriguing relationship between alcohol, calories and metabolism will be forthcoming."