Nearly nine in ten (86 per cent) Canadian baby boomers (40-59 years of age) think "beer will cause you to get fat or gain weight". But in a test of boomers' knowledge about ten common foods and drinks, the product they are most misinformed about is the number of calories in "a 12-ounce bottle of beer," which they overestimate having more than three times the calories than it actually has (447.26 estimate compared to 140 in reality).
Six in ten - 58 per cent - boomers think "moderate drinking of alcohol is good for your health" and eight in ten - 79 per cent - think "wine is good for your heart".
If drinking one or two beers a day was proven to reduce the chance of a heart attack almost half (44 per cent) of Canadian baby boomers (40-59 years of age) say they'd likely drink about one beer a day and if it was proven to reduce the chance of stroke, the same proportion (45 per cent) say they would be likely to do so.
But the survey reveals the Canadians as an abstentious bunch with, on average, six in ten (63 per cent) boomers "usually drinking at least one alcoholic beverage in a month."