A 110-Year-Old woman in Englewood, New Jersey, named Agnes Fenton drinks three beers and a shot of whiskey every day. That’s a good enough reason for me to believe that beer drinking is good for your health. There might not be any factual reasons to assume that beer consumption is the reason for Agnes Fenton’s longevity, but there really are actual scientific ways that beer is good for you. From cancer prevention, to bone strengthening, to help with digestion, there are a surprisingly large amount of healthy results that come from moderate beer drinking.
Drinking Beer Will Make Your Bones Stronger:
Your mother probably told you that the key to strong bones was drinking milk. Well, maybe she should have made you guzzle a glass of beer with dinner instead. According to a report from International Journal of Endocrinology, moderate alcohol consumption leads to increased bone density in men, but only if the alcohol is red wine or beer, not hard liquor. This means that the compounds that affect bone density are only found in red wine and beer. It isn’t the alcohol itself that helps make your bones stronger, but the ingredients. Researchers also found that the silicon in beer moderately affects the formation of bone. Link
Drinking Beer Can Help Block Inflammation:
Hops are one of the most important ingredients in beer. They give some beers the flavor we crave. They give your IPA its floral, subtly bitter flavor. But, hops have been used in folk medicine as sedatives and as anti-bacterial functions for thousands of years. According to a recent study, hops also work well for their anti-inflammatory properties. They compared the anti-inflammatory effect of different hops and found that the consumption of hops (in beer) helped stop inflammation because they interfere with inflammation causing compounds. So, next time, instead of taking an anti-inflammatory, just grab a beer or two. Link
Drinking Beer Can Help Prevent Cancer:
As if you needed another reason to drink beer. Beer is delicious, refreshing and can even help prevent cancer. The bitter acids that are found in hops have been found to reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer. Xanthohumol, a compound found in hops, is known to block the chemical reaction that can lead to prostate cancer as well as other cancers. The study, from the German Cancer Research Centre, found that compound also reduced the risk of breast cancer in women. Link
Drinking Beer Makes Your Heart Stronger:
Studies have shown that drinking beer gives drinkers the same heart-healthy benefits that a glass of wine offers. Italy’s Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura found that moderate beer drinking lowered drinkers’ potential for heart disease by 31%. This is exactly the same amount as what we have heard about red wine for years. They also found that drinkers only need to imbibe just over one beer containing about 5% ABV per day. The only problem is that if you drink too much, the advantage diminishes. So, instead of an apple a day, a beer a day will keep the heart doctor away. Link
Prevent Kidney Stones By Drinking Beer:
Two in ten men will have a kidney stone at some point in their life. A recent study in Clinical Journal of American Society of Nephrology says that drinking beer can greatly diminish your chances of being one of the two. They found that people who drank sugar-filled soda were 23% more likely to get kidney stones than those who didn’t drink soda. People who drank beer or wine had between 33-41% less chance of forming kidney stones than people who abstained from alcohol. So, next time you want to grab a can of cola, order a beer instead. Link
Drinking Beer Helps With Digestion:
Drinking beer after dinner instead of before or during might actually be the way to go.
According to a study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, beer consumption is linked to gastric acid production. They compared the effects of drinking various different beers had on gastric acid secretion. They found that beer is full of ingredients with digestive properties including the stimulation of gastric acid, pancreatic enzymes and various other mechanisms. Link
Drinking Beer Can Help Prevent Alzheimer ’s Disease:
Researchers at Loyola University in Chicago found that moderate beer drinkers have a 23% less chance to develop Alzheimer’s and dementia than those who don’t drink beer. They found that the silicon in beer shields your brain from compounds thought to eventually cause cognitive diseases. Also, the cholesterol in beer is believed to reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Drink more beer, your brain will thank you later in life. Link
Drinking Beer Actually Makes You Skinnier:
In a recent study, researchers discovered that there is a molecule in beer that can stop weight gain. The molecule, nicotinamide riboside, is being referred to as the “miracle molecule” and it might be the key to preventing obesity and diabetes. The study, published by the Journal of Cell Metabolism, proved the mice that were fed nicotinamide riboside over ten weeks, had higher amounts of energy and endurance than mice who didn’t get the molecule. Link
