Moderate drink may help dieting - study

Up to four drinks a day for men and two for women could benefit the dieting process, new research suggests.

The study was based on severely obese patients who had undergone weight loss surgery, and histories of their alcohol consumption before and after surgery.

John Dixon, senior research fellow at Monash University and the Alfred Hospital, and his colleagues, who conducted the study, found that light to moderate alcohol intake could have a positive effect on cholesterol levels.

The researchers also discovered that moderate consumption also reduced the risk of developing diabetes type 2, due to insulin sensitivity.

The report, which is due to be published in the Australian Family Physician, advises doctors that they should no longer tell obese patients that they need to curtail their drinking, provided it is moderate.

The report says that alcohol is normally burned up quite quickly and not stored as fat. To tell people to stop drinking moderately with their evening meal could be counter-productive as this could lead to other problems such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease.