Monday, July 06, 2009

News We Already Knew: Beer Belly Not Caused By Beer

A big story this weekend regarded a remarkable new finding:

An eight-year study of more than 20,000 beer drinkers - 7876 men and 12,749 women - found that while heavy drinkers will put on weight, it won't necessarily be around the beer belly region. [...]

The study was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.


An eight-year study? They could have just gone to Wikipedia:

However, there is little scientific evidence that beer drinkers are more prone to abdominal obesity, despite it being known colloquially as "beer belly", "beer gut", or "beer pot". One of the few studies conducted on the subject did not find that beer drinkers are more prone to abdominal obesity than nondrinkers or drinkers of wine or spirits.[32][33]


The second footnote goes to this story, from the BBC. First line:

There is no such thing as a "beer belly", according to scientists.


And where did the BBC get that information? From the same journal providing the information for the recent study:

The study was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.


Except it was published...in 2003.

This has been another episode of News We Already Knew.

Digg!

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