Your health and beer

As it turns out, beer is good for something other than giving you a buzz. Beer's nutritional value is often overstated because most of the nutrients in grain are lost in the brewing process.  Read on to learn how drinking beer can affect your health.

About two-thirds of the 150 calories in 355 millilitres (12 ounces) of ordinary beer come from the alcohol itself, with one-third coming from sugars; in contrast, only a trace of protein remains after brewing and straining. A 355 millilitre (12 ounce) bottle of ordinary beer provides five to 10 percent or more of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of folate, niacin, vitamin B6, and phosphorus, as well as significant amounts of chromium and selenium.

A medical study examined the beer-drinking habits of a group of people who had had a heart attack, as well as of a group randomly selected from the Czech population. The Czech Republic is especially appropriate for such a study because it is a country of beer drinkers. Perhaps surprisingly, in both groups, the lowest risk for heart attack was found in men who drank about 5.2 to 11.3 litres (11 to 24 pints) of beer a week.

Their risk was a third of that seen in the men who never drank beer. But if they drank more, the protection was lost and problems appeared. Dark beer seems to be especially protective. It was even found to reduce the potential harm caused by the notorious "heterocyclic aromatic amines" (HAAs) that form when food is heated to a high temperature. Serving dark beer at a barbecue is a good idea.

Beer's cardiovascular benefits are likely due to polyphenols, those pigmented antioxidants that are also found in fruits, tea, and wine. Researchers have found that drinking one beer a day alters the structure of fibrinogen, a protein in the blood responsible for clotting. In a study of men who had undergone bypass surgery, they found that those who drank 355 millilitres (12 ounces) of beer a day were less likely to form blood clots, and were at reduced risk for heart attacks and strokes.

A long-term study found that 20 to 50 percent of men and women with an average age of 74 bettered their chance of avoiding heart failure when they had at least 1.5 drinks daily.Beer is frequently served with nuts, potato chips, pretzels, and other salty foods. Because these increase feelings of thirst, they actually promote consumption of excessive amounts of beer. Foods that are high in protein, vitamins, and minerals and moderate in fat are better alternatives; for example, eggs, meat, poultry, seafood, or whole-grain bread or crackers, pasta, and legumes.

Typically, the alcohol content of beer ranges from three to eight percent, compared to an average of 12 percent in wine, and about 40 to 50 percent in hard liquor. Some people who are very sensitive to alcohol will react almost immediately to even this modest amount, often with feelings of aggression.

Many people, however, can consume one litre (one quart) or more of beer without obvious mental or physical effects. Since drinking more than one litre (one quart) of fluid produces an uncomfortable feeling of fullness, most beer drinkers usually stop before they become inebriated.

Even so, drinking one litre (one quart) of beer may yield up to 600 calories, which can result in weight gain, and the excessive urination resulting from the diuretic effect of the alcohol can wash away important vitamins and minerals before the body can absorb them. Contrary to popular belief, chronic overconsumption of beer can very much lead to problem drinking and even alcoholism. Watch what you eat with beer.