Six scientific reasons drinking beer every day is good for your health
What’s lower in calories than milk or orange juice, and packed full of vitamins and other nutrients?
Beer, that’s what.
A number of proper, peer-reviewed scientific studies have uncovered serious health benefits to drinking beer – even if you drink daily.
The catch, of course, is that we’re talking moderate drinking – one or two drinks per day at the very most.
MORE: Polar bear numbers could drop by a third in 40 years, research says
MORE: Police officer killed after huge sinkhole opens up in road in Texas
If you swill down bathfuls of the stuff, beer is just as bad for you as any other sort of alcohol – but if you drink sensibly, there’s quite a few benefits.
Beer is good for your heart
Moderate beer drinking has a positive effect on ‘good’ cholesterol – high-density lipoprotein (HDL) – acccording to Penn State researchers.
By ‘moderate’ they mean up to two drinks per day for men and one-and-a-half for women, by the way.
Shue Huang and colleagues followed more than 80,000 participants for six years and found that while HDL levels declined over time, those who drank beer had a slower decrease in HDL, therefore a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Beer reduces your risk of strokes
A Harvard study found that moderate beer drinkers can reduce their risk of strokes by up to 50% compared to non-drinkers.
It’s all to do with blood flow – when you drink beer, your arteries become more flexible and blood flow improves, meaning that blood clots are less likely to block the flow of blood to your brain.
Hoppy beers can protect against Alzheimer’s
A recent study found Xanthohumol, a compound in the hops used to flavour beer, is able to protect the brain from degenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Beer stops you getting kidney stones
People who drink a moderate amount of beer are 41% less likely to get kidney stones, according to a study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Beer makes your bones stronger
A glass or two a day could help make your bones stronger – it’s rich in dietary silicon, key to building bone mineral density, according to a study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
Moderate beer drinking helps you live longer
Virginia Tech researchers found that regular, moderate beer drinkers were 19% less likely to die during a given time period than people who never touch a drop.
