The Alcohol Paradox 103( drink driving accidents? maybe shot by their girlfriend’ s husbands?!) than French men who do not drink. Alcohol and weight – the Alcohol Paradox One of the best studies on this subject, published in 2004, was a very large study of almost 50,000 American female nurses who were followed over an eight-year period. 15 Because of earlier findings that suggested that alcohol was associated with lower body weight, this very well designed study was looking at what was really going on while allowing for other‘ confounding’ factors. What they found confirmed some previous research – with some caveats. Women who drank up to 30 grams of alcohol a day – i. e. three standard drinks – gained less weight than women who did not drink or who drank more than this! These results were basically the same as those for British women. I quote from a letter to the editor published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition16:‘ In the British Health Survey, women who were moderate drinkers were about half as likely to be obese as nondrinkers. Group differences in age, smoking habits, or physical activity do not appear to account for these remarkable( and remarkably overlooked) findings.’ The results in men are not so clear cut. Maybe because men who drink regularly find it harder to drink no more than 30 grams of alcohol a day! Nevertheless, men who can drink only moderate amounts are no heavier than their peers despite the extra calories in the alcohol. 15 Alcohol Intake and 8-Year Weight Gain in Women: A Prospective Study by SG Wannamethee, AE Field, GA Colditz and EB. Rimm. Obesity Research 2004:12:9:1386-96. 16 The balance of the reference is: MF McCarty, 1999:70:5:940-1.