A lot of women think they are doing themselves a favor by drinking red wine, with all the positive marketing it has received in the recent years. But in reality, at least according to this study, that involved 38,077 participants and lasted 12 years, “no single type of beverage conferred additional benefit, nor did consumption with meals“. Now, I’m not dissing wine, it has its own benefits, it tastes great and I love it. But if you’d like to have stronger bones, skin, hair and nails – beer is your better choice (2). When I say ‘beer’, I don’t mean the crap you get with Clydesdales’ pee being one of the better flavors, I mean the stuff created by people who care about the true beer quality – craft brewers.
Silicon
Beer is one of the best sources of dietary bioavalable (ready for immediate use by your body) silicon (3, 4). Silicon is a basic element vital to growth and development of bone and connective tissue; sufficient intake of it was shown to prevent osteoporosis (5, 6, 7). Another amazing property of silicon is neutralizing the neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects of aluminum, yep, the same aluminum you probably slather on your arm pits every morning (8). Silicon comes from the husk of barley, which transfers into the wort during the brewing process. Lighter malts have slightly higher amounts than dark, and hops have an amazingly high amount of this element as well (9).
Folate
Have you ever heard of homocysteine? It’s an amino acid produced by our bodies that hangs out in all our blood vessels, and is metabolized and regulated with the help of three vitamins of group B, the most important of which is folate. When we don’t get enough folate, the level of homocysteine goes up leading to cardiovascular disease (10). It’s pretty much a given in the States to not get enough folate, which adds to the reasons why we have the highest rate of cardiovascular events. Well, beer is high is this nutrient, which is why studies show that regular moderate consumption of beer helps maintain healthy homocysteine levels (11).
Xanthodumol
Here is a cool thing about hops – some research shows that one of the hops constituents, called xanthodumol, inhibits cancerous prostate cells (12). The same compound was found to be able to prevent and slow the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s (13).
I’m not saying you should start drinking enormous quantities of beer; just don’t shy away or feel guilty for drinking and enjoying it in moderation!
WHY BEER IS A SUPERFOOD
