Author's Claims are Inaccurate, Independent Testing Verifies;
National, Full-page Ads Correcting Mistake to Run April 23 in 31 Newspapers;
Doctor's Online Chat Room Admits One or Two Beers 'Unlikely to Cause Weight
Gain'
MIAMI, April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dieting adults who love their
beer, but have given it up based on the advice of "The South Beach Diet"
author Dr. Arthur Agatston now have good news: His attacks on beer are based
on errors, which his online nutritionists now admit.
The best-selling "South Beach Diet" book slams beer and bans drinking it,
saying it is high in maltose, a form of sugar.
The trouble is, there is no maltose in beer.
Maltose, from barley malt, is found in beer only in its early brewing
stages and is eliminated when yeast converts it to alcohol and carbonation.
Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob, Michelob ULTRA and all major-selling Anheuser-
Busch beers contain no maltose.
"The notion that beer contains large amounts of carbohydrates is simply
untrue," said Dr. Sam Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at
Washington University School of Medicine. "Furthermore, the carbohydrates in
beer are not sugar. Basically all of the sugar is converted to alcohol during
fermentation."
In fact, most light beers contain fewer than 7 grams of carbohydrates per
serving, which is defined as low-carb by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax and Trade
Bureau (TTB), which regulates the alcohol industry. Regular beers contain
about 10 grams of carbohydrates per 12-ounce serving.
"Independent testing confirms there is no maltose -- or any other sugar --
in our beers, or most other popular beers," said Douglas J. Muhleman, group
vice president and chief brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch, Inc. "This is a basic
fact of brewing science, and a call to any brewer would have cleared this up
for Dr. Agatston."
In his book, Agatston advises dieters to "avoid white wine, spirits, or,
worst of all, beer"; calls maltose in beer "even worse than table sugar";
calls maltose "the king of all sugars" that leads to a "beer belly"; and says
"guzzling this beverage" encourages "storage of fat around the midsection."
"We have notified Dr. Agatston about his inaccuracies," said Francine
Katz, Anheuser-Busch vice president and spokesperson. "Unfortunately, he has
so far refused to remove these false statements from his books and Web site.
He has taken no substantive action to make it known to the millions of people
who followed his advice that the information he provided on beer is terribly
flawed and misleading. They have a right to know the truth, so we are doing
our best to provide it."
Anheuser-Busch has placed full-page ads in 31 national and local
newspapers nationwide to advise beer drinkers of the mistakes on beer in "The
South Beach Diet." The ads will run April 23.
"Adults who responsibly enjoy beer -- particularly light beer -- have no
need to feel the 'carb guilt' that Dr. Agatston has wrongly attached to beer,"
said Katz. "We want all adult beer drinkers who might be watching their carbs
to know that."
Agatston wrongly targets beer carbs as being particularly bad, attributing
the problem to maltose. Agatston says the high "glycemic index" of maltose in
beer raises a person's blood sugar response, contributing to weight gain. But
beer contains no maltose, and there is no published glycemic index for beer.
In fact, the carbohydrate level of beer is too low to measure a glycemic
index, say University of Sydney researchers.
"Beer does contain calories, which is important to consider when trying to
lose weight," said Dr. Klein. "Light beers have about 100 calories, and
regular beers about 160 calories in a 12-ounce bottle."
Despite the fact that Agatston and his online nutritionists have partially
acknowledged the truth about beer carbohydrates, they have done so only to the
limited audience in the diet's chat room and have not changed the information
on beer in the "South Beach" books or Web site.
An online expert for "The South Beach Diet" recently wrote in the chat
room: "This diet is constantly changing based on new research so some of the
info in the book is out of date. One of those items, you will be happy to
know, is the ban on beer ... One or two drinks [of beer] is unlikely to cause
weight gain since it takes an extra 3500 calories over what the body needs to
gain a pound of fat."
When questioned about low-carb beers by one chat room dieter, Agatston
replied: "All of the alcoholic beverages, when consumed in moderation, appear
to have favorable effects on heart disease and diabetes prevention. We feel
that, as a rule, consuming alcohol with a meal is much more preferable than is
consuming alcohol on an empty stomach. We also prefer the low-carb beers,
such as Michelob ULTRA, to the high-carb beers."
This revised advice about beer comes after Anheuser-Busch notified
Agatston about the inaccuracies in letters sent to him in February and March.
"We are not saying drinking beer will cause you to lose weight," said
Katz. "Rather, we are providing accurate information for adults to determine
what products fit within their food and beverage choices. We want any
consumption of our beers to be by adults and to be responsible."
Details and sources on carb diet book misinformation on beer can be found
in a brochure, "Beer Carbohydrates - The Real Story," available online at
http://www.anheuser-busch.com .
Based in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (NYSE: BUD) is the leading
U.S. brewer and holds a 50 percent share in Grupo Modelo, Mexico's leading
brewer. In a survey of 10,000 business leaders and securities analysts,
Anheuser-Busch ranked first overall in quality of products and services among
nearly 600 companies researched in FORTUNE magazine's 2004 "America's Most
Admired Companies" listing. The company is one of the largest theme park
operators in the United States, is a major manufacturer of aluminum cans and
is the world's largest recycler of aluminum beverage containers.
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