A study has confirmed for the first time thatmen and women who drink alcohol continuously suffer from abdominal obesity to a greater extent, related to increased mortality in adults. The effect of alcohol on stored fat isgreater in the case of beer than in the case of wine, although both have a marked effect on this adiposity.
The European Prospective Study on Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) reveals that alcohol consumption continuously throughout life in men and women causes abdominal obesity with increased waist circumference. In addition, in men it causes general obesity with an increase in the Body Mass Index (BMI), according to the SINC agency.
The work, carried out over the course of nine years and published in theEuropean Journal of Clinical Nutrition, contemplates a sample of 258,177 individuals between the ages of 25 and 70 from ten European countries (France, Italy, Greece, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom and Spain). And it is the only study to date that looks at alcohol consumption in a large sample of adults from different European regions and examines the role of long-term alcohol exposure in abdominal and general obesity. Most studies are based on recent consumption of alcohol for a short period of time.
Beer or wine?
The researchers also looked at the specific effect of certain types of alcoholic beverages, including beer and wine. Although the effect of alcohol on abdominal obesity is largely explained by the consumption of alcohol throughout life, the consumption of beer has more influence than that of wine, although both have a marked effect on the appearance and accumulation of this fat.
For its part,men who drink more beer have a 75% excess risk of abdominal obesity, while heavy wine consumers exceed the risk by 25%. In the high categories of beer and wine consumption, the excess risk for beer is almost double that for wine in women. Thus, men who consume three or more glasses of beer a day increase their risk of abdominal obesity by 50%, while those who consume one or two increase it by 15%. However, women who drink one or two glasses a day throughout their lives have a slightly higher risk of developing abdominal obesity than those who do not consume half a glass. Those who consume three or more glasses a day double their risk.
With respect to wine, women who drink three or more glasses have a 60% increased risk of being abdominal overweight than those who do not drink half a glass. In men, the increased risk in the categories of high wine consumption is 28%.
