Allen Jenkinson from Milnsbridge says that, like me, he is watching his weight.

“I’m on two diets,” he says. “You don’t get enough to eat with just one.”

He and his friends are also involved in research involving beer consumption and loss of weight. This is the same Allen and friends who each year go to Ireland to test the quality of the Guinness.

He bases his weight loss theory on science lessons remembered from Royds Hall. So watch out, here comes the theory:

“A calorie is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree centigrade.”

The same should apply to a pint of beer, he says, as it is 95% water.

Here it gets complicated. A  pint weighs 568 grams. Assuming the beer starts at an ambient room temperature of 20°C it would rise, within a few minutes of entering the stomach, to the body’s temperature of somewhere around 37°C.

“The temperature of the beer would increase by the difference of 17°C, therefore if you multiply the beer’s 568 grams by this temperature differential, you come up with a figure of 9,656 calories. This energy has to come from within the body’s core and, if the science holds correct, by increasing the amount of the beer and lowering its temperature you would consume more calories and in turn you would lose more weight. What do you think?”

Sounds good to me.

Allen says the theory requires considerable research and he and his dedicated team would be willing to accept sponsorship.

Chance would be a fine thing.

Mind you, there have been stranger ways to lose weight on the market. There’s the fresh air diet, lemon juice diet, baby food diet, vinegar diet, banana diet, cabbage diet, egg diet and the lip gloss diet.

A beer diet could be extremely popular. I shall certainly be trying it. In moderation, of course.