Beer is not good for health: these are its four big lies

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Beer is, along with wine, one of the most consumed alcoholic beverages worldwide.Around it, a whole series of myths have been brewing about their alleged health benefits that have little or nothing to do with reality.Thus, from time to time we find headlines in which it is ensured that a "moderate consumption" can help protect the cardiovascular system, which is good for diabetes or even that it has analgesic properties comparable to those of the paracetamol.What is true in all this?Well, in reality, little or - more good - nothing.

"All this is a finely orchestrated campaign, not only in Spain, but throughout the world, for beer lobbies and alcohol industry," explains the dietitian and nutritionist Juan Revenga."It is very sad.We usually load the inks against the media that publish this information, but we must also load them against the researchers who would become professionalism in pursuit of a result that interests, "adds the professor at the San Jorge University.

Why then do the hypothetical benefits of low -gradation alcoholic beverages sell so much?Revenga responds sharp: "Goodrollism and sensationalism sells more than realism and scientific rigor.If I now publish a topic with a headline that says that cancer is cured with asparagus will have many more visits than one that denies it ".In our country, there are at least four great myths that have thrown roots in the collective imaginary around beer and whose scientific evidence is, at least, questionable.

The myth of beer as a moisturizing drink

For many running fans or cycling there is no greater pleasure than sharing beers with friends after a strenuous training day.This act is usually preceded by a "come, that barley juice serves to hydrate, which is proven".Nothing is further from reality.

Beer is a drink that has a high percentage of water and that, in addition, contains sodium and potassium, components that we can also find in the isotonic drinks used by many athletes after exercise.Following this logic, why shouldn't we turn to it?The main inconvenience, as we explain, comes from the amount of alcohol it has (between 4% and 5% on average).The diuretic effects that it has on our body makes a good part of the beer we ingest be eliminated through urine and contribute in this way to greater dehydration.

This was demonstrated in 2014 a study of the Human Movement Science Research Center of the University of Costa Rica, which determined that beer lacks moisturizing potential.The Sports Medicine Spain also warned about it in 2016, after the virtues of an "isotonic beer" were promoted in the media as a drink created to take care of the athlete.

"Moderate beer consumption can protect the cardiovascular system"

This is another of the most widespread myths among the common of mortals.Some researchers have affirmed that moderate beer intake can favor "global cardiac function".Is there any rigorous scientific study that demonstrates this?"Not.Absolutely none.All studies that highlight it are endorsed by a lobby or by scientific wills linked to beer, "says Revenga.

"Assuming that it was, the global risks that their consumption has for health are not assumed.Throwing from the roof of a skyscraper can help you dry your hair, but maybe the final result is not the most desired, "the expert exemplifies.The problem, in addition, is that there is no standard unit that defines universally how much beer we can consider as "moderate consumption" or "responsible".A cane a day?Two pints a week?A jug of beer per month?"The real problem is that there are about 35 different standards in the world," says Revenga.

Thus, for example, while in Germany they consider "low risk" that a person consumes up to 37 grams of alcohol a day, in our country this limit reaches up to 40.However, in Poland, to give another example, a person would have consumed alcohol "moderate" if it does not ingest more than 20 grams a day.What the Ministry of Health of our country points out in this regard is that "this concept does not exist in the WHO or any glossary or lexicon recognized by health institutions" and that "the industry usually uses it to refer to moderate consumption and without consequences".

"The beer does not get fat, uncle, which is to’ water "

Despite the omnipresence of chascarrillos in which someone is accused of "having thrown belly (or belly) brewery", there have been many attempts that have been made to try to prove that beer does not fat.In this article, for example, published in August 2017, you can read: "Beer is one of the least caloric drinks, with an average of 45 kcal/100ml, a figure that goes down at 17 kcal/100ml in the case ofThe alcohol without alcohol.Take two or three daily reeds if you are a man, one or two if you are a woman, not only do not fat but also have health benefits ".

It is not the only one or much less.Last March, another newspaper echoed a news in which it was stated that beer "does not fat and could be part of healthy eating"."It is evidence that beer contains calories.If you do not drink beer, the probability of gain weight, obviously, decreases.This is the same as saying that the bullets do not kill, that what kills is their speed ", a blunt trench.

"Beer helps to remove pain more effectively than paracetamol"

The alleged analgesic power of beer has been the last great fallacious head.Supposedly, researchers from Greenwich had published an article in which it was ensured that "taking two beers pints" was a better remedy to calm the pain than paracetamol."With this proportion a quarter of the ailment is reduced, since alcohol increases the dose in blood by 0.08% and expands the pain threshold, according to Greenwich researchers," one could read in one of the mediawhich published the subject.

Actually, as explained in a post in Naukas, the scientific article Analgesic Effectts of Alcohol: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Experimental Studies in Healthy Participants, published in The Journal of Pain, affects the dangersTo those who expose people who use alcohol to calm the pain caused by different ailments.However, an interview published by The Independent with one of the authors in which a tortical interpretation of his statements was made of a sensationalist holder that some Spanish media replied without any blush.And no, as the nutritionist points out, "you should never wear beer instead of paracetamol to calm pain".

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