MBAA TQ https://doi.org/10.1094/TQ-60-1-0107-01 | 
VIEW ARTICLE
Charles W. Bamforth. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, CA, USA
Abstract
The topic of beer consumption in relation to bodily health and well-being is a delicate one, especially when summarized by someone who has for many years been employed as a brewing scientist. It is critical that the issue be explored without prejudice, but comprehensively and with attention to the supposed benefits and pitfalls of beer consumption. This review summarizes the "state of play" and stresses the challenges that exist in trying to draw correlations between beer consumption and its impact on the body, whether this is claimed to be a benefit or a detriment to health. Beer contains a range of molecular types that are highly relevant to nutrition, including carbohydrates, proteins, phenolic substances, and vitamins. Beer is most certainly not "empty calories," with ethanol being the major source of calories in beer as in any other alcoholic beverage. While on the one hand it is the alcohol that renders beer a negative entity for the anti-alcohol lobby, it can just as forcibly be argued that ethanol is perhaps the most beneficial of all the beer constituents, whether it is acting as an antipathogenic entity or protecting against the accumulation of "bad cholesterol" in the blood supply.
Keywords: alcohol, antioxidants, beer, calories, carbohydrates, correlations, health, phenolics, proteins, vitamins
