Online exclusive
As well as Jennifer Bowden’s columns in the NZ Listener and here at listener.co.nz, subscribers can access her fortnightly “Myth busters” column, in which she explores myths around food and nutrition. This week, she explains the links between alcohol consumption and weight gain.
Alcohol claimed the lives of 901 New Zealanders, caused 1250 cases of cancer and was responsible for nearly 30,000 hospitalisations and over 128,000 ACC claims in 2018 alone.
These sobering statistics, revealed by new University of Otago research, underscore the hidden dangers lurking in every pint, including the notorious “beer belly” and its heavy toll on our health.
But is beer really to blame for the super-sized bellies found on some men or is something else brewing beneath the surface?
Beer bellies consist primarily of visceral fat, stored deep within the abdominal cavity around vital organs like the liver, pancreas and intestines. Visceral fat is particularly problematic because it secretes more harmful molecules than other fat, such as cytokines, which can trigger low-level inflammation. It is also associated with a higher risk of heart disease, asthma, dementia and cancer compared to subcutaneous fat.
Many factors influence our tendency to store abdominal fat, including gender, genetics, hormones, age and diet. Generally speaking, men have more visceral fat than women. However, men and women accumulate more visceral fat in their abdomen with age. For women, these changes occur around perimenopause. So, are gender and hormones the cause of beer bellies rather than beer?
While alcoholic drinks contain no fat, little or no protein, and only small quantities of carbohydrates, they still contain a sizeable dollop of dietary energy. A small bottle of draught or lager contains 500-600kJ of energy, while premium beer (at 6% alcohol) can contain up to 990kJ of energy; that’s 60% more energy than a glass of soft drink. While wine contains double the energy content of fruit juice. And how many wine or beer drinkers stop at one glass?
Alcoholic drinks are packed with energy because their ethyl alcohol is broken down by our bodies to provide energy. So, the greater the alcohol content, the greater the energy content.
But it would be overly simplistic to assume that the calories in beer are to blame for generous waistlines as body weight is complex and influenced by many factors including genetics, metabolism, stress, emotional well-being, socioeconomic status, environmental conditions, lifestyle and diet. Indeed, the evidence that alcohol expressly increases abdominal fat is contradictory.
However, a recent American study added support to the theory that alcohol promotes the storage of visceral fat in the male abdomen. This study followed 4355 participants for several years and found men who decreased their weekly alcohol intake, particularly binge drinking, had a lower waist circumference after five years.
Moreover, while high-performance cars can excel when using alcohol for fuel, the same cannot be said for human bodies. Alcohol metabolism generates free radicals and reactive molecules that damage cells, leading to tissue damage and disease. This process can cause cells to enter a state of oxidative stress, in which they are particularly vulnerable to damage and even death.
Furthermore, acetaldehyde, the toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism, is classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and also damages DNA.
While the liver removes toxins like alcohol metabolites from our blood, processing a single standard drink takes one to two hours. Humans are physically capable of drinking far more alcohol than that, thus allowing these toxins to circulate around our bodies and wreak cellular havoc.
Despite strong evidence from the World Cancer Research Foundation linking alcohol to cancer, public awareness remains low. Alcohol damages cells and raises the risk of cancers in the mouth, oesophagus, larynx, breast and colon.
Consuming three or more drinks daily also increases the risk of stomach and liver cancer. Excessive alcohol intake (over 21 units per week) is also a significant dementia risk, according to the latest Lancet Commission on dementia prevention.
Undoubtedly, then, the harmful effects of alcohol go beyond visceral belly fat. Alcohol of any kind creates oxidative stress in our cells, contributing to tissue damage, disease, and a heightened risk of various cancers and dementia – which explains the startling statistics on alcohol harm recently released by the University of Otago.
But while we can’t change our genetic predispositions, we can make conscious decisions about our drinking habits to better protect our health and well-being.
