Beer isn't to blame for your belly

Cheers! To the good news that beer isn't to blame for your belly. Photo / iStock

Beer gut: It's right there in the name - but it seems that beer might not be as bad for the waistline as previously thought.

Australian brewers Lion are set to add voluntary nutritional panels to its products, starting with XXXX, Tooheys, Hahn and James Squire.

Lion's marketing director Matt Tapper said it was a common misconception that beer was high in sugar and carbohydrates.

"Most people think beer is full of sugar and preservatives when in ­actual fact our beers are preservative-free and most are on average 99.9 per cent sugar-free,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

Catherine Saxelby, a leading dietician, was part of a panel of independent experts who validated Lion's nutritional results. She told the Daily Telegraph that she was surprised by how "pretty benign" beer turned out to be.

Low carb beer marketing had "reinforced this myth that beer is fattening", she said. "Beer was never that high in carbohydrates."

It is possible that the food people eat along with beer, particularly high fat food to "soak up" alcohol, was what lead to expanded waistlines.

The Australian alcohol industry has not been required to provide nutritional information before and Lion's decision could prompt other companies to follow suit.

"It will have a flow-on effect to all the alcohol beverages ... this time next year I would expect most of them to carry nutrition labels," Ms Saxelby said.

- nzherald.co.nz