Beer Belly: It's the genes not just the beer
Drinking a lot of beer can lead to a weight gain, but it won't necessarily give you a beer belly. That is what research published recently in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found.
German and Swedish researchers looked at some 20,000 men and women, studying among other things, the relationship between the change in their beer consumption and the change in their waist circumference.
They concluded that heavy beer consumption leads to weight gain, but that not everybody who drank beer and gained weight, developed a beer belly.
Where that weigh showed up had more to do with the "natural variation in fat patterning." Our genetic makeup, I guess.
I read an abstract of this research, not the full article. It was written in technical language. Here, for example, is the phrasing of one of its beer belly conclusions. "This study does not support the common belief of a site-specific effect of beer on the abdomen, the beer belly."
This seems to contradict common sense. If you gain weight because you drink a lot of beer, where does the weight gain show up on your body?
In your feet?
There are, however, people who drink a lot of beer and never get fat. What, I wonder, is their secret?
Why do some of us spread out like Fat Albert, and others remain bean-pole thin?
Why does this happen. Any ideas?
Photo: 20th Century Fox
Comments
Blame your parents.
Posted by: rusty | July 9, 2009 10:14 AM
This is a "heavy" subject. I know little on the scientific end, but I'm willing to bet the belly is one of the first places to store body fat, so when a person who seems relatively thin does gain a few bounds (due to perhaps several heavy beers), it probably does go right for the belt. Everyone's got a somewhat skinny buddy with a beer belly, and you know it's a direct correlation with their consumption!
Posted by: Chris | July 9, 2009 2:03 PM
I believe a large portion of the "beer belly" may, in fact, be an enlarged fatty liver from excess alcohol consumption.
In severe cases of liver enlargement/fatty liver, the liver can become more than 3 times normal size.
Posted by: karl heuer | July 9, 2009 3:11 PM
Rob:
When I was young, I ate so much my Mom said I had a hollow leg. Think its filled with beer now!
Posted by: Matt | July 9, 2009 6:20 PM