Why do we talk about a beer belly from drinking large amounts of beer, while beer actually contains fewer calories than soft drinks? Indeed: beer usually contains fewer calories than soft drinks. Scientific research (for instance, in the Czech Republic, a beer country if ever there was one) has also clearly shown that bellies or overweight are no more common among beer drinkers than among non-beer drinkers. Yet the stubborn folk wisdom persists that drinking beer causes bellies. This is possibly due to the image of the Bavarian beer drinker, who often has quite a large amount of excess body fat. However, this has more to do with the Bavarian diet, very rich in fats and sugars, and less to do with beer..