A little red wine may be good for the lips, but also the hips.
A new study out looked at 20,000 trim middle-aged and older women. Researchers found women who drank alchohol in moderation were less likely to become overweight compared to non-drinkers.
This was true even after researchers took into account various lifestyle and dietary factors that might influence a woman's weight.
Red wine seemed to best keep the weight at bay, but white wine, beer and spirits also seem to have some benefit.
"Our study results showed that middle-aged and older women who have normal body weight initially and consume light-to-moderate amount of alcohol could maintain their drinking habits without gaining more weight compared with similar women who did not drink any alcohol," Dr. Lu Wang from the division of preventive medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, noted in an email to Reuters Health.
The study was published in the latest issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. It is the first to study the relationship between alcohol consumption by a normal-weight individual and the risk of becoming overweight.
Many prior studies have suggested that moderate drinking, such as drink or two a day, can be beneficial to heart health, while heavy drinking can be harmful.
All of the women participating in the study were at least 39 years old. About 38 percent said they did not drink alcohol; 33 percent said they drank less than 5 grams daily; 20 percent drank 5 to less than 15 grams daily; 6 percent drank 15 to less than 30 grams daily; and 3 percent downed 30 grams of alcohol or more daily, according to a Reuters report.
