RUE89 (France)

Good news: beer does not give you beer belly! Although we've been led to believe there was a direct correlation between beer and abdominal obesity, a group of very serious scientists from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden discovered that beer is not responsible for our beer guts.

The Swedish researchers went to Germany (where else?) to conduct their study. More than 20,000 Germans volunteered to for the research. Each volunteer was weighed and their waist and hips were measured. They also had to answer a questionnaire about their beer drinking habits. From there, various categories were created, from "abstinent" to "moderate" (more than 250 ml per day) to "heavy drinker" (between 500 ml to 1 liter per day).

The result is absolutely clear: "To drink beer leads to an increase in fat on the whole body," Rue 89 reports. The good news is that beer is not to blame if you have an imposing belly but no fat anywhere else. The bad news is that beer is still fattening.

But this very serious study doesn't take into account other criteria --what the subjects were eating, for instance. The Swedish scientists should nevertheless be included in the running for an Ig Nobel Prize, which rewards the most improbable research around the world.

Read the original article in French