Beer : Health and Nutrition

6 The Impact of Alcohol on Health
In this chapter we consider the effect that alcohol, including in the form of beer, might
have on the overall state of healthfulness of the body. What harm might it do – and
might it actually do some good? And let us start from a baseline statement that alcohol
is relatively non-toxic, with an oral LD 50 for the rat of 13.7 g/kg (i.e. the amount of
ethanol which will kill half of the animals in an experimental population) (Bakalinsky
and Penner 2003)
Increasingly the evidence is that there appear to be bene ts in drinking beer (and
other types of alcoholic beverage). Guallar-Castillon et al. (2001) concluded that the
consumption of total alcohol (wine and beer) was associated with a lower prevalence of
sub- optimal health. Hospitalisation is less acute for daily moderate drinkers (Longnecker
& McMahon 1988), especially for women who had consumed between 29 and 42
alcoholic beverages in the fortnight prior to lling in the questionnaire. Artalejo et al.
(2000) found that moderate drinkers in Spain were less likely than abstainers to use
healthcare services. Meanwhile Wiley and Camacho (1980) showed that moderate
alcohol consumption (17–45 drinks per month) was associated with the most favourable
adjusted health scores.
Beer drinkers were shown by Richman and Warren (1985) to have signi cantly
lower rates of morbidity (sickness) than expected – one drink per day giving 15% less
disability than was the case for the general population.
There will be those reading this who will not be able to countenance such ndings.
If these people nd it hard to swallow that drinkers, imbibing in moderation, could be
less ill, then they might note that they have certainly not been shown to be more sick.
However, we must stress always that many of these studies are dealing with correlation,
not necessarily causality. Some will argue that there may be other confounding factors
not explored in the studies, and that those who tend to drink in moderation may have
other lifestyle attributes that are the true reason for their enhanced healthiness. However,
the sheer frequency of studies that have demonstrated the bene ts of restricted alcohol
intake, which we will explore in this chapter, weigh heavily in support of the merits of
sensible drinking.
In the mid-1990s, the Department of Health within the British government addressed
the matter of recommended safe limits for drinking. After (we presume) careful consideration
of the scienti c and medical evidence available up to that stage, they increased