In The New York Times, Tara Parker-pope wrote the "Woman who drink gain less weight" article, which caught my eye, because I wonder that what kind of drink and why the drink affects only woman.
A "new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity" (¶ 1) because women are "substitute alcohol for food", whereas men "add alcohol to their daily caloric intake" (¶ 5). Moreover, alcohol increases woman's metabolism. However, the researcher only did the experiment with women who are in US, and 39 years old or more. Also, "an overweight woman may gain more weight from alcohol than a lean woman"(¶ 8), so woman should not drink it to lose weight.
I think that this research is not reliable because it did the experiment with the specific group. I think that American women are different from Thai women both in eating behavior and metabolism. Furthermore, alcohol causes many diseases such as liver cancer and high blood pressure. Although, I have low blood pressure, and some doctors suggest that alcohol is good for me to increase blood pressure, I still do not drink it because I think that its effects are more serious than symptoms of low blood pressure. Besides, I think that its taste is not good.
A "new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity" (¶ 1) because women are "substitute alcohol for food", whereas men "add alcohol to their daily caloric intake" (¶ 5). Moreover, alcohol increases woman's metabolism. However, the researcher only did the experiment with women who are in US, and 39 years old or more. Also, "an overweight woman may gain more weight from alcohol than a lean woman"(¶ 8), so woman should not drink it to lose weight.
I think that this research is not reliable because it did the experiment with the specific group. I think that American women are different from Thai women both in eating behavior and metabolism. Furthermore, alcohol causes many diseases such as liver cancer and high blood pressure. Although, I have low blood pressure, and some doctors suggest that alcohol is good for me to increase blood pressure, I still do not drink it because I think that its effects are more serious than symptoms of low blood pressure. Besides, I think that its taste is not good.
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References
Parker-pope, T. (2010, March 8). Woman who drink gain less weight. The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2010 from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/women-drinkers-gain-less-weight/?em
On teh other hand, "Obese drinkers face liver 'double whammy'" on the BBC News (2010, March 13) at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8562231.stm lends support to Ann's concerns about the reliability of this study.
ReplyDeleteI think the results reported in teh NY Times are probably reliable, but I would agree wtih Ann's caution that it would be dangerous to extrapolate from the US study to Thailand, for the reasons that Ann so clearly explained.