Is there really such a thing as a "beer belly"? Many people want to know whether their drinking habits have something to do with the layer of fat that is growing around their midsection. Well, according to several scientific studies, there just might be an association between alcohol and abdominal fat.
Calories from alcohol.
Alcohol doesn't contain any fat (exceptions are creamy liqueurs like Bailey's Irish Cream) but it does contain seven calories per gram, which is just slightly lower than fat at nine calories per gram (carbohydrates and protein each contain four calories per gram). It has been called a source of "empty calories" because alcohol contains very few vitamins or minerals.
According to a University of Colorado study, drinkers are not necessarily more obese than non-drinkers. Just like excess calories from any other source, you will gain weight if you add calories from alcoholic drinks to your regular diet. You will probably not gain weight if you replace calories from food with calories from wine, spirits, or beer but you do run the risk of malnutrition because the empty calories from alcohol take the place of the nutritious calories from food.
However, other studies indicate that the body responds differently to the calories from alcohol compared to the calories from carbohydrates, protein or fat.
Alcohol may block body's ability to burn fat properly.
A 1992 Swiss laboratory study that was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reported that alcohol may block the body's ability to burn fat properly and any excess fat not burned will be stored in the abdomen.
The eight male participants in the study were given the equivalent of three ounces or 90 grams of pure alcohol and were put on two types of diets. In the first diet, the alcohol accounted for 25 percent of calories but the total daily calories needed to maintain their regular weight did not change. In the second diet, they drank enough alcohol to increase their daily caloric intake by 25 percent.
On both types of diets, the men experienced a one-third decrease in the body's ability to burn fat properly.
Alcohol increases appetite.
Another reason why alcohol can cause weight gain is that even small quantities stimulate the production of gastric or stomach juices and, therefore, increase your appetite.
Alcohol also tends to trick you into thinking that your food tastes better so you end up eating more. Joy Bauer, author of "The Idiot's Guide to Eating Smart", tells about a client of hers who would "pig out" on a certain type of pizza during drinking sprees with her college classmates. One day, the client passed by the pizza parlor when she was sober and discovered that the pizza she thought tasted fantastic actually tasted terrible.
When you are drunk, your sense of being full is no longer accurate -- you can't figure out if you are really full or not. This can lead to overeating. The fact that alcohol also loosens up your inhibitions could contribute to making a glutton out of you.
The ironic thing about alcohol and appetite, according to Dr. Charles Lieber, director of the Alcohol Research and Treatment Center in New York City, is that while alcohol makes you eat more, the food you eat is rendered "nutritionally useless". Alcohol "interferes with the body's absorption, storage and use of nutrients" by causing, for example, diarrhea or damaging the stomach lining. This is a no-win situation because the alcohol destroys the vitamins and minerals of your food but you still retain all the calories from the alcohol.
Alcohol, smoking, and stress.
In an interview with Prevention Magazine (March 1999), Dr. Jacob Seidell of the National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands, notes that alcohol, smoking, and stress all raise the levels of cortisol, a hormone that causes fat to be stored in the belly. This may be one reason why alcohol drinkers have big bellies. Stress is probably the real culprit since smoking increases stress and alcohol destroys the B-vitamins that are known to be "stress-busters".
Wine versus beer.
Scientists of the University of North Carolina, University of Minnesota, and Johns Hopkins University studied 16,000 men and women drinkers and discovered that the beer drinkers had a bigger waist-to-hip ratio than wine drinkers. In fact, the wine drinkers had smaller waists than the beer drinkers even when the amount of alcohol and calories consumed were similar. The scientists still don't know why the wine drinkers would have less abdominal fat than beer drinkers.
Good news and bad news about belly fat.
The bad news is that belly fat, whether subcutaneous (under the skin) or visceral (deep within the abdomen), is associated with a higher risk for heart disease, high triglyceride and cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar levels.
This is because abdominal fat cells contain more beta or fat releasing receptors than the fat cells in the hips, thighs, and buttocks that contain more alpha or fat storing receptors.
The fat that is released from the abdomen goes straight to the liver where it is changed into a different form and then into the bloodstream where it can accumulate into abnormally high levels causing all the problems mentioned above.
Now for the good news. Since the abdominal fat cells release fat easily, if a sedentary alcohol drinker were to start exercising and cut back on the booze, he or she would have a relatively easy time trimming down their tummy.
Caloric content of common alcoholic drinks.
If you are trying to lose weight, it would be good if you knew how many calories you slurp down when you go out for a night on the town.