Beer Found to be as Healthy as Wine

Matt Clare writes "Researchers at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) recently found that beer has the same positive qualities that wine has previously been found to have. The media release quotes professor John Trevithick, 'We were very surprised one drink of beer or stout contributed an equal amount of antioxidant benefit as wine, especially since red wine contains about 20 times the amount of polyphenols as beer.' For more info on how beer helps police harmful free radicals in blood, The London Free Press also has an article."

Comments

Some Good Qualities != Healthy

[TheFlyingGoat]

It may have as many antioxidants, but it also has a hell of a lot more carbs. If you REALLY want to get a lot of antioxidants, try blueberries instead. All the good stuff, little of the bad.

Many other health benefits

[i0n]

Beer has a lot more to offer than just antioxidants, especially when you drink unfiltered homebrew/craft beers. For one, there's a ton of fiber (I've heard 5g/12oz quoted (too lazy to confirm)) which is good considering that most of us dont get near the recommended amount (~25g/day I think). Also, unfiltered beer contains a considerable amount of yeast (no, not just on the bottom, suspended too) which has tons of vitamin B12 (ever seen 'brewers yeast' at the health food store). I've heard also that lack of B12 is one of the main causes of hangovers - to this day, I've never had a (bad) hangover drinking my own beer.

Let's drink better beer.

[IvyMike]

Not that YOU personally would do this, but I have seen discussions arguing over "Beer X is better than Beer Y" where both sides clearly need to widen their beer horizons.

So let's get edjumucated. (and seriously, what could be more fun?) Here are two lists of (mostly) great beers that have very wide distribtuions--go out and find something on these lists that you haven't had, and try it tonight!

RateBeer's top 'accessible' beer list.

BeerAdvocate's 'Best Most Available Beers' list.

There are other lists, too, these are just to get you started. You can go to both site's "Top beers" to find a list of even better beers, although many of those could be hard to find.

Re:Interesting....

[dasmegabyte]

I think it's more an issue of the amount needed to produce the desired effect. To get a decent buzz on, I need to drink three 12 oz cans or two 16 oz pints of the average 5% alcohol beer. This is 510 calories, the equivalent of eating a large order of French Fries. Light beer is 330 calories, the equivalent of a medium order of french fries. Now, to maintain said buzz, I would need to consume a minimum of 16 oz of beer per hour, which means three hours of drinking is the equivalent of a McDonalds extra-value meal.

On the other hand, I only need to drink 15 oz of wine to get the same buzz. Wine only has 106 calories per glass, so I'd be about as well off with wine as I would with light beer, though I'd probably enjoy it more as light beer doesn't hit the spot the way nice glass of Merlot would. Shit, drinking a whole bottle of wine is only 500 calories. So drink up, man...5 drinks for the caloric intake of 3, that's my idea of a party.

Re:Alcohol is no health food

[Idarubicin]

Actually, the whole title of beer or wine being "healthy" is rediculous. Alcohol is the most damaging food product you can put in your body.

Actually, there are several "good" studies--published in reputable journals, with good methodology and solid statistical methods--that show an association between moderate alcohol consumption and appreciably reduced risk of a number of diseases. (Here, moderate is a range from approximately 1 to 3 drinks per day, depending on the study.)

Reduced risks include cardiovascular diseases (heart attack, stroke) and neurological disorders (Alzheimers, other dementias, Parkinson's). There is a correlation with an overall reduced risk of mortality, even after controlling for income and education.

Consumption of alcohol to excess definitely does systemic damage to quite a bit of the body, but there is no evidence that moderate consumption is harmful. Sure, the benefits aren't huge, but for most people there's definitely no reason to describe alcohol as the 'most damaging' food product they can consume*. Only half in jest, I would recommend the Big Mac for that title, or maybe a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Alcohol would definitely be waaaay down the list. Quite right--most reputable physicians and researchers wouldn't recommend taking up drinking solely for health reasons, but no reputable scientist will tell you to drop drinking entirely, either.

*Exceptions include individuals who have a genetic inability to digest alcohol (defects in aldehyde dehydrogenase or another enzyme), or a predisposition towards alcoholism, or a liver or kidney disorder.

Re:I think I speak for all of us ...

[darthwader]

I think I speak for all the people who actually read the article, when I say: "According to the London Free Press article, the research was funded by Labatt and Guinness".

(Who hoo! I'm going to get +3 informative, just because I actually bothered to RTFA. Karma karma karma.)

Re:I think I speak for all of us ...

[nebaz]

Answer: from the article

I concurred. And then I jokingly asked if the study was sponsored by a brewery.

But that's no joke.

"The research was funded by Labatt and Guinness," said Trevithick, adding each brewery paid about $25,000 to finance the study. "But it's an unconditional grant and we made it very clear to them that if we had any findings we viewed as being appropriate to publish, that we'd publish them whether or not they were harmful to Labatt or Guinness."

Re:Interesting....

[Anonymous Coward]

You can already get a 5 liter box of 12% alcohol wine for 6 bucks.

Only an alcoholic would mod this informative.