R. Curtis Ellison, MD, the director of the Institute on Lifestyle and Health at the Boston University School of Medicine, says this study is the strongest evidence to date that calories from food and booze are not created equal.
“Many other studies that are not nearly as well done or as large as this suggest that calories from alcohol are metabolized differently,” Dr. Ellison says. “The alcohol calories probably don’t count as much as calories from a Hershey’s bar.”
Dr. Kahan says that the findings challenge the conventional wisdom about calories from alcohol. “The way that the body handles those calories very possibly might be very different from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins,” he says. “It makes you wonder if we’ve been thinking about alcohol as a nutrient a little bit incorrectly.”
One drawback of the study, Dr. Kahan adds, is that the researchers did not examine how alcohol consumption might influence weight gain in women who are already overweight or obese.
Another limitation, according to Dr. Ellison, is that the study contains no information on the role a woman’s drinking patterns might have played—whether, for instance, a glass of wine each day had a different effect than downing several drinks once or twice a week.
Although recovering alcoholics and people with uncontrolled epilepsy shouldn’t drink, Dr. Ellison says, moderate alcohol consumption can have health benefits for people middle-aged and older, especially when it comes to heart health and stroke risk.
For most women, he adds, these benefits will outweigh the small increase in breast cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption. “I am someone who’s a strong believer that substances in wine are helpful,” he says.
