Most people enjoy a drink from time to time, but if it turns into an everyday habit, even a single beer or glass of wine can stack up faster than you’d think.
Whether your go-to is red, white, or rosé, wine is often viewed as fairly harmless when it’s consumed in moderation.
Red wine, in particular, has a reputation for being “better” thanks to its antioxidant content. Still, that doesn’t automatically make it healthy overall—and similar questions apply to beer, too.
Researchers have debated for years whether alcohol offers any meaningful health benefits, but the risks are well established. Drinking more than recommended can raise the likelihood of issues such as heart disease, liver damage, and other long-term health problems.
Newer findings suggest the effects may extend beyond what many people typically associate with alcohol.
A study published in the International Journal of Obesity reported that weekly alcohol intake is associated with higher levels of visceral fat mass (VFM).
Visceral fat is the deep fat stored around internal organs, and it’s often considered more difficult to reduce than other types.
One reason alcohol may contribute is that it can be calorie-dense, while also containing compounds that aren’t beneficial for the body.
Higher VFM is linked with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic complications.
For the Oxford Biobank research, scientists reviewed data from 5,761 adults aged 25 to 75, who provided information about how much alcohol they typically drank.
Participants were then grouped by sex, and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans were used to estimate overall fat mass and visceral fat mass. After exclusions, the final sample included 42.8 per cent men and 57.2 per cent women.
Among men who drank alcohol, reported weekly consumption ranged from as little as one to four units, up to between 17 and 98 units.
Women who drank reported roughly 10 to 50 units per week.
The overall pattern was clear: higher alcohol intake corresponded with greater visceral fat.
For men in the highest intake group, VFM was 10.7 per cent higher than in those who drank the least. For women, the difference was around 17.1 per cent.
It’s also worth noting the study did not control for factors like diet, the specific type of alcoholic drink, or the long-term health outcomes that might follow over time.
Even so, many people already associate heavy drinking with weight gain—hence the phrase ‘beer belly’.
What’s less widely discussed is the idea that higher visceral fat may be linked to earlier aging of the heart.
Research referenced by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London suggests abdominal fat can be particularly harmful for cardiovascular health.
At the same time, fat distribution may matter: fat stored around the hips and thighs in women has been suggested to be more protective compared with abdominal fat.
All of which raises an obvious question: if fat location matters, how exactly is someone supposed to choose where their body stores it?