The awesome health benefits of craft beer
This may be surprising, but craft beers (in moderation, of course) can give you great health benefits.
Good quality craft beer contains:
- B vitamins, which help prevent heart disease;
- niacin, which lowers cholesterol and aids sleep;
- soluble fibre, which is good for your heart and other organs; and
- polyphenols, which comes from hops, is a type of natural antioxidant that help to lower cholesterol, fight certain types of cancers and kills viruses.
Moreover, beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are rich in the mineral silicon. This is needed for the growth and development of bones and connective tissue. A study by the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California published in February 2010 (Casey et al., Silicon in beer and brewing, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture) found that beer is a rich source of dietary silicon, which may help prevent osteoporosis.
You need strong bones to hold beer mugs this big, and beer can help build them (via BigEAles)
But, isn’t wine supposed to be the healthy one?
Traditionally, wine (in moderate quantities) is known to keep the heart pumping strong. Yet, in a Harvard study of 70,000 women, “there was a suggestion that light-beer drinking was inversely associated with risk of hypertension”, one of the major risk factors for heart diseases.
So which beer is best?
If you were calorie counting, light beers are typically less “calorific” (if that’s even a word). However, dark beers have more antioxidants. Also, dark beers have a higher iron content than light beers, which is an essential mineral for our bodies.
Before you head out and order a huge jug of Tiger, hold up for one sec.
These benefits only apply to craft beers. As they are often brewed without a large gauntlet of preservatives and chemicals, they retain the inner goodness of its fundamental ingredients — barley, hops, yeast and water. Sadly, this is also why we often have short expiry dates for these beers.
Also, moderation is key. Realistically, that translates to 1–2 beers a day for men and about 1 beer a day for women. For pint-sized people like myself, that probably means half a beer a day! So, drink responsibly!
