Mixed
High genetic risk for obesity (high GSBMI) is significantly attenuated by frequent alcohol consumption, meaning daily drinkers experience a much smaller genetic effect on BMI compared to non-drinkers.
If you have a high genetic predisposition to obesity, your drinking habits matter more for your weight than the total amount you drink. Specifically, drinking alcohol frequently (daily) appears to blunt the genetic effect on BMI compared to not drinking or drinking rarely. However, this does not mean alcohol is 'good' for weight loss; it is a specific gene-environment interaction where the genetic risk manifests differently.
The effect of GSBMI decreased, in a dose-dependent manner, as alcohol consumption frequency increased and the effect of GSBMI was less than half the effect in everyday drinkers compared to infrequent drinkers
Why this rating
Large sample size (N=362,496), replication cohort, highly significant p-values (1.45*10^-29).
Source
Gene-environment interaction study for BMI reveals interactions between genetic factors and physical activity, alcohol consumption and socioeconomic status
Mathias Rask‐Andersen et al. · PLoS Genetics · 2017
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