Editorial Update: I got an email from the person in question in this post and upon reflection it is a bit harsh of me to use "stunnedest". I still think there is far too little written about calories and beer and the reference to "tea" was not helpful so I am leaving the post up but, yes and as noted, most drinkers do not gun a six pack each time they enjoy a good beer. Though many do. Perhaps it was a grumpy week for me. Who knows. Please leave a comment on this reflection if you wish.

This is one of the funnier quotes I have read from someone whose livelihood involves getting people to buy more good beer:

The beer belly myth is also something McClelland would like to help dispel. "A lot of Canadians perceive that beer is high in calories, or fattening," he said. "That's one of the reasons many females shy away from beer." But beer is actually low in calories, McClelland said. "It's probably just somewhere above water and tea."

Tea? TEA??? I am sure Mr McClelland is a real nice guy but that is just about the stunnedest idea I have ever heard. As we have known for some time, beer packs a pretty decent caloric punch. Adding a six pack of something as light as Blue Moon to your diet adds about enough calories to add 1/3 of a pound to your bulk if you don't do something about it. Move up to the high alcohol bombers with double digit strength and you might as well be sucking back cake icing. People with interests in beer sales don't like mentioning this but no one without that interest really denies it. While recent study of Canadians indicate that the overall numbers of the most serious implications are actually lower than I would have thought, the ratio of beer benefits to beer detriments is established at a very sobering 1:10. No one really doubted that, right?

Lesson: make sure that when you are getting health advice about beer or otherwise that you are listening to someone whose specialty is medicine and not brew consulting or wholesale beer sales.