Beer : Health and Nutrition

130 Chapter Six
et al. (1999) went so far as to suggest that if European beer drinkers stopped imbibing
there would be a decrease in life expectancy of two years – and a lot of unhappiness. In
a study in Caerphilly, Wales, a clear bene t of alcohol consumption as a cardioprotective
was demonstrated, even though the vast majority of the alcohol was consumed as
beer, with little wine being consumed in that society (Fehily et al. 1993). In contrast, in
wine-drinking rural Italy, the bene ts of wine were seen (Farchi et al. 2000).
Hendricks et al. (1994) demonstrated that alcohol (40 grams) taken at dinner in the
form of wine, beer or spirits impacted bene cially on the plasminogen system, consistent
with the notion that moderate consumption of alcohol in any of these forms reduced the
risk of coronary heart disease. Similar results were reported by Rimm et al. (1999), who
monitored changes in several parameters related to coronary heart disease and concluded
that 30 g of alcohol per day offers the drinker almost 25% reduced risk of this disease.
Van der Gaag et al. (2000) report that alcohol taken as red wine and spirits causes
an increase in the level of homocysteine in blood serum, an event that is associated
with heart disease. They claimed that when the alcohol was taken as beer it did not
lead to such an increase, and it was hypothesised that this was because of the presence
of vitamin B 6 in beer.
Klatsky et al. (1997) decided that there might be minor additional bene ts linked
to drinking both beer and wine, and not especially red wine. However, their study of
3931 people hospitalised for coronary disease showed an inverse relationship to CHD
for each type of beverage, the weakest correlation being for spirits drinkers. For men
the inverse relationship was signi cant for beer; for women it was signi cant for wine.
But when analysis was controlled for total intake of alcohol, a signi cant relationship
only remained for beer use by men. No signi cant differences in risk could be found
when red or white wine was the drink of choice. Gaziano et al. (1999) were clear in their
conclusions that beer, wine and spirits were equally advantageous (in moderation) (see
also Renaud et al. 1993; Klatsky 1994; Klatsky et al. 1997; Hein et al. 1996; Rimm et
al. 1996). As Klatsky (2001) says:
…it seems likely that ethyl alcohol is the major factor with respect to CHD risk.
There seem to be no compelling health-related data that preclude personal preference
as the best guide to choice of beverage.
One particularly intriguing study was that of Hlavacek et al. (1999). They rst showed
that rats preferred beer to water or to an aqueous solution of alcohol, and furthermore
that the rats’ apparent preference for different beers coincided with that of their human
counterparts. The authors concluded that these rats were therefore a good model to compare
drinkability of different beers. More pertinent to the present discourse, however,
were Hlavacek’s observations that the propensity of hamsters to develop atherosclerosis
was minimised by the beers used in the rat study to an extent equal to that of red wine.