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​No, drinking gin does not speed up your metabolism

The Internet was tricked by this fake story.

Gin Buck

Their findings were published in the journal Food & Nature and described the benefits that gin had on the metabolism of mice.

Except, they weren't. Because this lead paragraph, which has been closely imitated by outlets like The Daily Mail, The New York Daily News, and others, was ripped straight from a story originally published on British website, Prima.

And that article was posted on, yes, April Fool's Day.

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Indeed, the original story starts with a disclaimer which notes,"*Only joking. In case you hadn't guessed, this is the April Fool we very much wish was true! Chin chin!" (Hopefully, no one took our burrito shake video seriously, too.)

But when the story was syndicated on Yahoo News UK, the warning was conspicuously absent.

The rest of Prima's article, however, was intact. And, in fact, Yahoo News even went on to publish a list titled "8 glorious reasons to drink more gin" in its wake.

Without this crucial red flag in place, the fake story was then circulated around; as of this writing, the Daily Mail article has generated more than 16,000 shares.

No doubt, we all wish that gin could be so beneficial as to boost our metabolism "by 17 percent."

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Alas, until there's some actual science to back up this assertion, you may be better off sticking with a beer diet.

Or, maybe just have a gin Old Fashioned on us, dietary boost not included.

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