In praise of judicious consumption of beer.

Maunder, L.

Abstract
In response to the commonly negative press on beer in Canada the author has compiled a number of data to illustrate the positive side of beer consumption. Judicious consumption is taken to be one litre per day and many of the nutrients provided by this amount are compared to the nutritional requirements of a 45 year old male Canadian weighing about 80 kg. The beer can provide about half the daily requirements of magnesium, niacin and folic acid, 20 to 30% of the requirements for chloride riboflavin and pyridoxine. It is worth noting that this amount of beer supplies about 15% of the daily calorie intake for a fairly heavy man. Other areas where beer appears to have a positive effect are in many social situations, especially geriatric hospital patients, and, in general, consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol is associated with a longer life expectancy than either heavy drinking or total abstinence.
Keywords: beer constituent consumption nsutrition