Beer: Does A Body Good
Me, four years ago at Oktoberfest
Apparently beer is good for your bones:
Charles Bamforth found that the beer’s silicon content ranged from 6.4 milligrams per liter to 56.5 milligrams per liter, with an average of about 30 milligrams. Since two pints of beer are just about equal to one liter, drinking two beers at happy hour could provide 30 milligrams of silicon. And while there is no official recommendation for daily silicon uptake, the researchers say, in the United States, individuals consume between 20 and 50 mg of silicon each day [LiveScience]. Light lagers and non-alcoholic beers not only lack flavor, they showed the lowest silicon content in Bamforth’s study. The ultra-hoppy India pale ales came in first.
While Bamforth happily reported his findings about silicon content, the study didn’t claim any link between beer drinking and bone health, which silicon supports.
Now, I am aware that the healthiest thing is a balanced diet with everything in moderation and probably a vegetable or two wouldn’t kill me either, but I enjoy beer and just am not a wine drinker (yet, come on resveratrol-fortified shiraz) so I am going to reject my better judgment and use this as an excuse to feel a bit less guilty when indulging in a Magic Hat #9.
Tags: Food
Pop Transhumanism | Kyle Munkittrick | 
February 8, 2010 4:04 pm
