The four-day Diamond Jubilee celebrations starts this weekend from 2-5 June, 2012, and if you are worried about putting on weight at the street party or neighbourhood barbecue – and most women seem to be, especially at menopause – then this new piece of research from the United States means you can still raise a glass for a toast.
This very timely good news comes courtesy of some splendid researchers from Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston – and it is just applicable to women. They found that women who drank the equivalent of a glass or two of wine a day gained less weight and had a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese than women who didn’t drink at all.
So if you are female and enjoy a daily serving or two of wine, beer or liquor, you may be helping to prevent weight gain and you also have less risk of becoming overweight than women who drank too much.
As ever it seems, moderation pays off and this study was based on data collected by the Women’s Health Study and followed 19,000 women for about 12.9 years – which is a fair few bottles of wine.
So why do women benefit, but men don’t seem to? The researchers don’t actually know, but think it might be that men tend to add alcohol to their food intake, while women substitute alcohol for other foods.
There is already plenty of evidence that one or two glasses of red wine a day has positive heart benefits because of its antioxidant activity. As part of a healthy lifestyle it might just help you absorb those Jubilee cupcakes and Queenly snacks without putting on too much weight .
Not in excess, but as this is a once every 60 year celebration it is worth bearing in mind!