Drink Beer, Stay Healthy

In Defense of Beer

This is an attempt to convince the people who turn up their noses at beer.

Beer contains barley or wheat or rice and hops.
The basic ingredients of beer are -

• water
• a starch source, such as malted barley, which when fermented gets converted into alcohol
• a brewer's yeast to produce the fermentation and
  
• a flavouring such as hops
  

One cannot call water unhealthy. Nor is it unhealthy to eat wheat barley or rice. The alcohol is not an additional ingredient. It is obtained from the fermentation of barley. So technically even if you are not drinking beer and eating fermented rice dishes (idlis, dosas) you are consuming an alcohol like ingredient. Would you give up eating idlis, dosas and medu vadas just because they contain alcohol.

Beer contains only 4 - 6 % alcohol.
Beer contains only 4 - 6% alcohol. So one can safely say beer contains negligible amount of alcohol. It is technically impossible to get drunk on one beer.

Alcohol is antiatherosclerotic beta blocker.
Alcohol when consumed in moderate amout acts as a antiatherosclerotic beta blocker. It prevents the hardening of walls of the arteries. Beer is ideal drink for "moderate" amount of alcohol. Hence, drinking beer is good for your heart!

Beer contains natural preservatives.
Beer contains natural preservative called hops. Hops are flowers that are found on hope vines. They lend the beer its bitter taste and act as natural preservatives.

Nutritional value of beer
A glass of beer typically has just 72 calories. 0g fats, 4g carbohydrates and 0.6g proteins.

Coke or beer?
So now allow me to compare a glass of coke and a glass of beer.

With Coke, you are drinking God-knows-what, a lot of sugar, artificial preservatives and artificial flavoring agents and a truck load of calories. It is bad for your weight and it just cannot be good for your heart if it has so many things you are not even aware of.

With beer, you are drinking, barley (healthy), no sugar (healthy), natural preservative (healthy), little alcohol (healthy and good for your heart!) and only 72 calories (good ain't it?).

They why would anyone who has the power of thinking would drink coke instead of beer?

Some more secondary reasons -

After water and tea, beer is the third most popular beverage all over the world!
Third most popular! See! It even beats coffee and coke.

The Beer Culture
Beer in itself forms an intrinsic, undefined but widespread and popular culture. Sports fans worldwide speak the language of beer. It has also given us the "pub culture". Getting together for a beer, listening to music, dancing, playing cards, darts! Beer has fostered social life for ages!

So, the next time you are asking some one to give up beer. Think Again! And convince yourself to try it.

I rest my case :)