A British study has found that people are woefully unaware of the weight-gaining consequences of drinking alcohol, particularly if you drink on a regular basis. The Know Your Limits campaign polled 2,000 adults in England. Researchers found that 40 percent of the people didn’t know that a glass of wine has the same calories as a slice of cake (120).
I’m not sure that knowing the comparative calorie content is all that ignorant. However, when you think about what kinds of foods an alcoholic drink can be compare to, it’s pretty revealing. A pint of beer is comparable to a doughnut. And what’s most telling is the cumulative or long view of consumption. Five pints of beer a week would add up to 221 doughnuts in a year!
The research also shows one unwanted side effect of heavy drinking (besides a hangover) is that breakfast the next morning tends to be unhealthy.
“It’s not only the calories in the drinks themselves that can help to pile on the pounds, we’re also more likely to eat fatty foods when we’ve had one too many,” says England’s Health Minister Phil Hope.
(via: BBC)