Thursday 2 September 2010

Beer vs. OJ

Heated discussions are common in the West household ... ones that I'm asked to settle are not! So I was rather pleased to be asked over the weekend to settle an argument over whether orange juice or beer was more fattening.

The argument was triggered by an article written in the telegraph, which I correctly guessed had been written by a man before being shown the paper! It definitely was a male reader pleasing article suggesting that beer was positively healthy and less likely to make you fat than orange juice.

I settled the argument without reading the article, but now I've read it some of you might be interested in the reasons I disagree and find this sadly another example of poor reporting when it comes to nutrition.

In particular I thought the following quotes were misleading:

"There's no fat in beer and no cholesterol either, and it's ridiculously low in calories and carbs,"
It's true that beer contains no fat, but excess carbohydrates are turned into fat in the body so this doesn't mean that beer isn't fattening. Beer has roughly similar calories per ml to orange juice (182Kcal per pint (574ml) versus 180kcal per 500ml orange juice) but it has a higher glycemic index than orange (66 versus 51) so it causes a faster rise in blood sugar levels causing greater insulin production and thereby greater fat storage.

"Your spare tyre is probably due to all those pork scratchings you ate alongside your pint or even due to your breakfast orange juice which, health clubs please note, does contain fat."
Ok so beer doesn't contain fat but neither does orange juice ... the journo who wrote this article apparently wasn't into fact checking! To be fair drinking lots of orange juice can also cause weight gain, but an equivalent intake is unlikely ... city boys and other beer drinkers are much less likely to drink six pints of orange juice in a row than six pints of beer!

"After all, beer is a rich source of soluble fibre, with just two glasses providing more than 30 per cent of our required daily intake;" Beer contains negligible fibre so I'm really not sure how it can be recommended as a healthy source of fibre.

Obviously if you want to enjoy a couple of pints after a hard day in the office that's not the end of the world health wise, but trying to make out that it's a healthy option is just wishful thinking!

For anyone interested here's the original article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/7966430/Beers-not-to-blame-for-weight-gain.html
 
 
 

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