Alcohol a Big Reason for Obesity, Report Finds
None of us think too much about the calories in our glass of wine or pint of beer. But a new study found that increasing the price of alcohol is the best way to stop obesity in Australia.
In 2016-17, Australians drank 186 million litres of pure alcohol. While the problems of excessive drinking are well-documented, this research is the first to show that economic policies designed to reduce alcohol consumption would also have significant impacts on body weight.
The study, released last week, showed that if we increase alcohol taxes, overall alcohol consumption would go down. This would lead to a substantial decline in obesity in Australia.
We were joined by Jaithri Ananthaparvan, from the Global Obesity Centre and also a co-author of the report.
