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Are IPAs Giving You Man Boobs? An Investigation

If you only took into consideration ads for light beers, you’d believe that the threat of developing a gut alone would be enough for men to monitor their beer intake. But we live in the real world, where some men are so proud of their extended bellies that there is a whole novelty t-shirt empire devoted just to servicing their needs. Clearly, the message isn’t taking.

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But what if the threat were the beer gut’s cousin-in-estrogen: man boobs?

Suddenly it’s a different story, right? Something about the idea of man boobs strikes a much deeper chord. Maybe it’s a sense of emasculation. Maybe it’s because there was an entire “Seinfeld” episode dedicated to milking laughs out of the ludicrous notion of a male bra. Maybe it’s because historically no jolly fat guy has even been described as having “breasts that shook like bowls full of jelly” when he laughed?

There has been a persistent rumor that IPAs cause man boobs – aka gynecomastia. But as with anything that gains traction in the social media age, you have to question where it started, why it took off and whether or not there is any truth behind any of it.

Where the IPA = Man Boobs Rumor Started

The idea of “Brewer’s Droop” has been around nearly as long as alcohol has existed. Even though it refers to the erectile dysfunction associated with excessive drinking, it does have ties to the whole “IPAs cause manboobs” phenomenon. Specifically, it all comes down to hops.

“Hops contain phytoestrogens, which make beer more estrogenic than other drinks,” says therapeutic nutritionist and author Kelly Dorfman. “All alcohol has the potential to promote estrogen, but the combination of hops and alcohol in beer make it particularly ‘man boob’- enhancing.” Gynecomastia, most commonly arises when a man has high levels of estrogen and his estrogen-to-testosterone ratio is off.

The connection between the estrogen in hops and the development of “man boobs” was initially published in a 1998 book called “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation” by Stephen Harrod Buhner. IPAs become the immediate target because they tend to be more hoppy than other varieties …

Correlation Does Not Equal Causation

In 2017, Vice published an article titled bluntly, “IPAs are Giving You Manboobs.” The author cites Buhner’s book, and the through line he draws from heavy exposure to estrogenic hops and erectile dysfunction. The article also cites an herbalist who discusses the ways in which hops are used as natural painkillers and to help boost milk production in lactating women. However, the article does stop short of actually concluding with the same declarative statement as its title.

“The phrase ‘correlation does not equal causation’ was coined exactly for situations like this,” says Matt Simpson, founder and owner of the craft beer consultancy The Beer Sommelier. “I come from a bodybuilding background, and there is no real causation found between hops and gynecomastia. I don’t think there have been any real studies that have shown a direct correlation, much less causation, between gynecomastia and beer.”

Backing up Simpson’s claim is a 2008 study published in the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Journal titled “Environmental Gynecomastia.” In it, the authors (Glenn Braunstein, Chairman of the Texas A&M University’s Department of Medicine, and James Klinenberg, Chair in Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), write: “A cause and effect relationship between phytoestrogens and gynecomastia has not been conclusively demonstrated for bourbon and beer.”

For Simpson, the hubbub comes down to a click-worthy headline being more readily accepted over the more ambiguous truth. “Once you take a few steps backward, and you take a look at the bigger picture, you realize that your typical beer drinkers may not be the most athletic people in the entire world,” says Simpson. And, he points out, there is a causation between excessive beer drinking and weight gain, and that as weight gain happens all over the body, including the torso and the chest area. “I would say, given Occam’s Razor – that the more likely thing is true: it’s much more likely that anybody who is experiencing more voluminous fat in that region would be from weight gain and not from gynecomastia."

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So, Do IPAs Really Cause Man Boobs?

It seems more and more likely that the truth is (and don’t hate us for this)… complicated.

Even though Dorfman is much more convinced of the direct influence of hops and alcohol on the development of man boobs than Simpson, she, too, admits that there are a lot of mitigating factors at play here.

“There is very basic chemistry involved in this reaction,” she explains. “All estrogen is created from testosterone with the aid of an aromatase enzyme. In men, it’s not very active, but in women, it is – which is why most of the testosterone is converted. Alcohol – from any source – regulates the aromatase enzyme so there is more conversion. Hence, the feminizing ‘beer belly’ and ‘man boobs.’” When asked about Simpson’s assertion that overall weight gain is a factor, Dorfman agrees that “it’s true excess fat tissue is also estrogenic,” but still thinks any effort to absolve beer from its role in the development of man boobs is trying to pass the buck. However, even Dorfman admits that the “IPAs cause manboobs” headline – even if it oversimplifies the gray areas around the idea – is very effective in at least getting young men to think about the consequences of pounding brews.

“Teens are drinking too much and do not want to hear or think about how the health effects apply to them, so to prevent their eyes from clouding over I whip out the man boob picture,” she says. “It always gets their rapt attention, and giggles. But anything to help them be more thoughtful about their decisions.”

What Can You Do to Prevent Getting Man Boobs?

Now you might be wondering 'are IPAs unhealthy'? At the end of the day, both Dorfman and Simpson agree that moderation is the best bet, whether you believe in the direct correlation between hops and gynecomastia or you subscribe to the idea that excessive beer drinking can cause weight gain all over. 

“It is confusing because the issue is multifaceted,” says Dorfman. “How fast you develop man boobs will depend on your metabolism, if you’re overweight to begin with, what kind and how much alcohol you consume, your starting hormone situation, and even your exposure to environmental toxins like BPA.”

Simpson offers some additional, practical advice for getting rid of/prevent man boobs: “Exercise a lot. If you like the flavor of beer but are on a calorie-restricted diet, choose those styles that are full of flavor but lighter on alcohol and residual sugars,” he advises. His pick: Berliner Weisse.“It’s a light, tart German wheat beer that tops out at somewhere between 3-4 percent alcohol that’s also very dry. But it has a lot of flavor!” 

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Eric Alt, Khareem Sudlow