Sabkush Headlines: The beer bonus

Sabkush Headlines: The beer bonusThe beer bonus





Beer is catching up with wine in making news for its health benefits. As the highest consumed alcoholic beverage worldwide, whether this popular barley brew is a healthy beverage needs to be carefully examined. Beer, an alcoholic carbonated beverage is a product of fermentation of grains such as wheat, millets and barley. Most breweries ferment barley, corn and rye together with hops and cultured yeast strains to provide the alcoholic content, carbonation and characteristic flavour of this beverage. Lager beer, the most popular American beer, is aged to mellow its flavour. The alcohol content is typically 3.2 per cent. "Non-alcoholic beers" are not strictly alcohol free because they contain up to 0.5 per cent alcohol. With less alcohol, non-alcoholic beverages contain fewer calories than their alcoholic counter-parts. However, beer with 2.5 per cent alcohol can still be called "low alcohol" beer because it contains less alcohol than the usual 3.2 per cent alcohol. The first step in beer-making is malting the barley. During this process grains are moistened or sprouted, the enzymes in this mix breaks down the starch. At a particular point, this is stopped by heating it. The colour of the beer is related to the temperature to which malt is heated. The malt is then ground and a pigment is mixed in hot water. The insoluble material extract is separated and the fermentable extract is called wort. Flowers of hops are added following which the yeast is added. One serving of regular beer (1 can or 330 ml) provides 116 calories, 13 g of carbohydrates in regular beer and 4 g in light beer, 9 mg protein, 18 mg calcium, 0.11 mg iron, 1.6 mg niacin and low levels of other B complex vitamins, indicative of its low nutrient density. Its comparison with milk seems far-fetched to say the least. Being high in carbohydrates, it contributes to a "beer belly", which is a determinant of the waist circumference. However, results of some studies contradict one another. It has been demonstrated that the light-to-moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages is associated with significant reductions in cardiovascular mortality. Image credit: Reuters