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" One of the easiest ways to slash calories and drop pounds is to cut back on your alcohol intake. But are your TV habits sabotaging your get-slim efforts? Read this before you park yourself on the couch with a glass of vino tonight...A new study from the Netherlands reveals that television viewers who watched boozy movies and commercials drank twice as much as viewers who did not. Researchers divided volunteers into four groups. The first watched American Pie (it&amp;#x27;s chock-full of alcohol references) and commercials for booze. The second group watched American Pie, but no alcohol ads. Another group saw the film 40 Days and 40 Nights (which has less alcohol references than American Pie) and were exposed to alcohol commercials. The last group watched 40 Days and 40 Nights and saw no ads for alcohol. The volunteers were told they could have as much beer, wine and soda as they wanted during the screening. Subjects who watched American Pie with the alcohol ads gulped almost 3 bottles of booze, while people who watched 40 Days and 40 Nights with no alcohol commercials drank only 1.5 bottles. &amp;quot;Our study clearly shows that alcohol portrayals in films and advertisements not only affects people&amp;#x27;s attitudes and norms on drinking in society, but it might work as a cue that affects craving and subsequent drinking,&amp;quot; lead researcher Rutger Engels told BBC News. I tape most of the shows I watch (Gossip Girl, anyone?) and as a rule don&amp;#x27;t drink alone in my apartment. But if I have people over for a screening, the wine definitely flows freely. Do you drink while you watch TV? Is there a certain show that makes you want to reach for a tipple? What are you watching tonight? (Anyone else out there obsessed with America&amp;#x27;s Next Top Model, like me?) Photo: iStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/03/want-to-cut-back-on-drinking-d>