Far from unhealthy beer can actually boost your health, with its benefits ranging from improving heart health to reducing the risk of arthritis.
Wine drinkers have long revelled in quiet confidence that a glass or two of red wine can be beneficial to your health.
But research shows that beer too can be good for your health, moderation being the key, with its benefits ranging from warding off dental cavities and preventing harmful carcinogens to giving you gleaming locks.
Katy Perry recently reaffirmed her love of beer sharing a pint with a fan onstage, so drink up and pour yourself a pint.
Scroll through for 10 of the best reasons to ‘cheers’ your next beer….
Beer is ‘no less healthy than wine’
Earlier this year a survey by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) concluded that the majority of Britons wrongly believe that wine is healthier than beer, when in fact moderate drinking of any alcohol is the key to good health.
Professor Charles Bamforth, of the University of California, Davis, and author of Beer, Health and Nutrition, said the belief that wine was somehow healthier than beer was a “myth” and that moderation was the key, not your choice of tipple.
Study finds beer can boost heart health
Last summer researchers at the Harokopio University in Greece suggested a daily pint of beer could be good for your heart.
The study, which was published in the Nutrition Journal, looked at “17 healthy, non smoking men” and measured their heart health after drinking 400ml of beer finding that blood flow to the heart improved within a few hours.
The study found that non-alcoholic beer did not provide the same benefit.
Beer could lower arthritis risk in women
Earlier this year a study carried out by scientists in Boston found that women who drank four beers a week had a lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than non-drinkers.
Women who drank moderate levels of beer were 22% less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, following two studies of 238,131 women conducted over three decades.
While those who drank two to four beers a week had a 31% decreased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis compared to women who never drank beer.
Wash your hair in beer, says supermodel
If it’s good enough for Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson, it’s good enough for me.
The 50-year-old beauty told Yours Magazine recently that she regularly douses her long locks with beer to “keep it shiny”, a trick passed down from her mum.
The old-fashioned treatment apparently works by leaving a residue of hops and barley in hair as it dries giving it a coating which is supposed to give hair more body and weight.
Bathe in beer at 700-year-old castle
Its old fermentation rooms boasts seven 13-foot long spa-like baths in which guests can immerse themselves in 12,000 litres of warm water enriched with 300 litres of Biergeläger.
The brewery claims that bathing in beer has enormous health benefits from improving circulation, while the yeast is apparently good for the skin.
Beer marketed as post workout beverage
A Canadian beverage company launched a new protein-filled ale this year designed to aid the recovery of muscles after a workout.
Created by a team of food scientists at Vampt, a Canadian beverage company, Lean Machine is a low-alcohol, protein-packed “fit beer” which is only 77 calories and just 0.5% abv.
By lowering the level of alcohol by volume and adding salt, they found that the manipulated beer actually hydrated their sample of athletes better than traditional ale.
It is reportedly enriched with nutrients, antioxidants and electrolytes to help replenish the body after a good workout.
Beer hops could fight dental diseases
Hop leaves discarded during the beer brewing process could help fight dental diseases, a scientific report claimed earlier this year.
According to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, the light green leaves of hops, found on the flowers that give beer its bitterness, contain antioxidants that could help fight dental diseases such as cavities and gum disease.
Got a cold? Have a beer
Last year a Sapporo Breweries-backed study found that beer contained chemicals that could counter the common cold.
The study was conducted by researchers at Sapporo Medical University – the brewery also has its origins in the capital city of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost isle – and concluded that the compound, known as humulone and found in the hops used to make beer, was effective in curbing the respiratory syncytial (RS) virus.
The same virus also can cause bronchitis and pneumonia in children.
Jesus would have drunk beer, says priest
Father Bill Miller, an Episcopal priest from Texas, said recently that “God” and “strong drink” were among two of his favourite things, imparting his wisdom for beer drinking and God-loving in his new book, The Beer Drinkers Guide to God.
So strong is his endorsement of the beverage that he believes if Jesus was alive today he would have turned water into beer rather than wine.
Father Miller is also a supporter of Theology on Tap – a program of lectures sponsored by a number of Catholic dioceses, which sees ministers take the church into bars, pubs and restaurants, where Miller says some of the best pastoral care can be given to those who would not be likely to “set foot in a church.”
Beer marinated meat lowers cancer risk
A team of scientists said this year that marinating meat in pilsner or black beers before throwing them on a coal-fired grill could help lower potentially harmful amounts of carcinogens.
A study concluded that letting meat sit in beer for a few hours can reduce levels of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which have been linked to colorectal cancer.
The study was conducted by a team at the Universidade do Porto and its finding published in the ACS’s Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.
