Washington (SmartAboutHealth) - According to a new study released this week, women who drink are less likely than women who do not drink to gain weight and be overweight or obese.

The study was carried out by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA as they focused in on roughly 20,000 women from around the U.S.

All of the women who took part in the study had an average age of 38.9 years old and up, and had a normal body mass index (BMI), with no history of cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc.

They put the women through a series of questions to gauge how much alcohol they consumed, and how it impacted their body weight.

They then followed the women and continued to question them for a period of 8-years worth of follow-ups.

What they found was that women who consumed a moderate level of alcohol were actually less likely to gain weight and be overweight or obese than women who did not consume alcohol.

Over the years that the researchers followed up with the women, women of normal weight who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol had a lower risk of being overweight or obese.

The four alcoholic beverages tested in the study included white wine, red wine, liquor, and beer.

The study has been published in the March 8th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.