Word: alcohol
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...scientists controlled for a suite of obvious factors that could have separately contributed to the women's weight, such as age, smoking, physical activity and other lifestyle and behavioral habits. But even after accounting for these potential confounders, the link remained between higher alcohol consumption and a lower risk of being overweight or obese...
...association led the team to consider several possible explanations. First, it could be that women who drink more simply substitute alcohol for other sources of calories - in essence adopting a form of the liquid diet. Indeed, when the researchers analyzed the data, it appeared that the women who drank the most got fewer of their total calories from nonalcoholic sources than other women, but also consumed the most calories overall. Women having one to two drinks daily, for example, consumed 1,738 kcal/day, compared to the 1,670 kcal/day of teetotalers, but they took in 177 fewer kcal/day from nonalcoholic...
Second, there is evidence that alcohol may cause physiologic changes to appetite and metabolism that may drive women to lose weight as they drink more. Women may metabolize alcohol differently from men, using a more inefficient, high-energy process that causes them to burn more of the calories from alcohol than men, which in turn leads to a net loss in caloric intake. But more research is needed to determine exactly how women process alcohol and the different ways in which the liquid calories are absorbed by the body. "It's very likely there is a combination of physiologic, metabolic...
...worth noting that while replacing some foods with alcohol may seem like an enticing weight-loss loophole, it isn't necessarily good for health. "Displacing 200 calories or so from food with alcohol probably has a detrimental effect on diet quality and on overall health," notes Dr. David Katz, director and co-founder of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. "If you look meticulously at nutrient intake, there might be important deficiencies there...
That underscores the complex effect that alcohol has on the body, especially in women: excess alcohol can lead to a greater risk of developing breast cancer, while moderate consumption of a glass of wine a day may help reduce heart disease risk. So whatever potential gains a nightly beer or glass of red may have on slimming down love handles, the benefits must be balanced against the other potential gains and risks of alcohol consumption. (Watch TIME's video "How to Lose Hundreds of Pounds...