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Tequila Fat Burn

REVISIT SERIES - 

An updated post from July 2015

No, it's not a new, rather disgusting sounding cocktail. I was amused to see headlines on Facebook saying that drinking tequila could help you lose weight. Can it?

TL;DR version: No. Move on. Longer answer follows.

If I had £1 for every new story where [insert your favourite alcoholic drink] is shown to have some positive effect, I could retire immediately. And, surprise, surprise - this is yet another such story that has no basis whatsoever as far as the headline goes. But it does have one interesting possibility for an alternative to sugar and existing sweeteners.

All the press coverage comes up with statements like 'You won't believe why drinking tequila might actually help you lose weight,' or 'You won't feel so guilty after that extra shot.' To be clear. Tequila will definitely not help you lose weight, and even if the implied benefit were true, which it isn't, the dangerous impact of alcohol would far outweigh the benefit. In fact the research specifically points out that the beneficial substance this report is based on, of which more in a moment, is not found in tequila.

Hidden beneath the 'drink your way to weight loss' stories is a much more interesting possibility. The actual research, reported at an American Chemical Society meeting, showed that agave, which happens to be the plant tequila is produced from, contains some very interesting sugars called agavins. Instead of the usual fruit sugar fructose, these sugars are fructans, which are effectively fructose polymers. The result of this different structure is that the sugars can't be used by the body and so don't have the negative impact of sugar. They even appear to somewhat reduce blood sugar levels - and they still give a sweet taste. Admittedly they're not as sweet as a conventional sweetener, but still offering the hope of a substance that has few potential side effects (see below) and no negative impact on blood sugar levels.

It should be noted that this study was a trial on mice (always a red flag as anything more than a pointer where further research is indicated), and was funded by a food company and a company making agave products - while that doesn't necessarily mean that the research is dubious, it is an indicator to be wary.

A really interesting story - but almost entirely hidden by the baloney about tequila being 'good for you.'

For some people, though, fructans-containing substances are a no-no as they can have the same impact as gluten intolerance. If you benefit from a low FODMAP diet (recommended for the likes of IBS), the this definitely isn't for you. As yet (in 2025), agavin sweeteners don't seem to have taken off... we'll see.

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