Subvert your impression! Is drinking beer good for your health? 4 unexpected health benefits

Maybe you often see beer of different brands and origins in major supermarkets or shopping malls, and often drink beer at various parties, but do you really understand beer?

Beer is not only the most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage, but it is also easily available through many purchasing channels, has a low alcohol content, and is easier to drink in flavor and taste than other spirits. It is the alcoholic beverage of choice for many people when having parties or dining. But, do you really know beer? "Eight Points of a Manager's Life" takes you to a glimpse into the beer stories you never knew!

Origin: The earliest alcoholic beverage! Beer originated from the ancient civilization of Sumer

Beer can be said to be the earliest alcoholic beverage, and its history can even be traced back to the oldest civilization known to mankind - the Sumerian culture.

Sumerian culture can be traced back to 4500 BC, when the Fertile Crescent was formed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. According to Thomas Shellhammer, a doctor of fermentation science and beer researcher, the earliest beer was simply because people forgot to put the barley in the wooden box barrels, and happened to encounter a burst of afternoon thunderstorms, which allowed the wild yeast ginger sugar to convert into carbon dioxide and alcohol, thus giving birth to the world's first batch of craft beer.

Since then, beer was called "barbarian drink" in Greek and Roman times, and expanded all the way to the whole of Europe. Only then did so many beers with different styles and tastes appear, and it even became the most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage by modern people.

The production of beer generally involves four steps: saccharification, boiling, cooling, and fermentation.

Procedure: 5 steps to brewing beer

Since the type of beer is related to its brewing process, how is beer brewed? In simple terms, beer production generally involves four steps: saccharification, boiling, cooling, and fermentation:

Saccharification: The process of allowing enzymes to convert starch into sugar by boiling in water is called "saccharification". During operation, water temperature of about 60~65℃ must be used to boil the malt for an hour to turn it into sweet wort.

Boiling hops: Boil the cooked wort. After the saccharification stops, you can add hops. The length of time the hops are boiled and the amount of hops used determine the flavor of the beer.

Cooling: The wort must also be completely cooled before adding the yeast to avoid the yeast being killed by too high a temperature. When the high-temperature wort comes into contact with the air during cooling, it will easily cause mold or fail to ferment during the fermentation process. Therefore, you can use ice to cool it down, or use copper pipes to shorten the cooling time.

Fermentation: After cooling down, yeast is added. During the fermentation process, yeast will absorb sugar and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, which is the source of bubbles in beer. Depending on the fermentation method, beer is divided into the two major systems of "ale" and "lager" mentioned above!

Filtration: Finally, the yeast and excess impurities are filtered out and the beer can be bottled. Some craft breweries’ beers are unfiltered. For example, Northern Taiwan Ale’s secondary fermentation technology in the bottle claims that you can drink the yeast, which adds flavor.

Type: Hundreds of types! Three major classifications of beer, even beginners can understand them at a glance

Whether you drink or not, you will see the names of beers from different countries, origins and brands in supermarkets or convenience stores. The Beginner's Guide to Wine Tasting points out that no matter what kind of beer it is, it is brewed with water, malt, hops and yeast, but there are 3 different classifications:

1. Lager vs. Ale

The difference between raga and ale actually lies in the way they are made. When fermenting lager, yeast mainly moves at the bottom of the wort, and the fermentation temperature is in a low temperature environment of 2 to 13 degrees Celsius; while when fermenting ale, yeast mainly moves at the top of the wort, and the fermentation temperature is in a normal temperature environment of 16 to 24 degrees Celsius.

However, beer is further divided into hundreds of different types according to its origin, flavor and color.

2. Belgian vs. American

Belgian law does not fully specify what ingredients or recipes brewers need to use to brew beer, so in addition to barley, various spices, oats, cane sugar and honey are also used. Even the addition of hops and the proportion can be adjusted according to the brewer's ideas, making "diversity" the biggest feature of Belgian beer.

In contrast, because there is no large-scale cultivation of barley in the United States, industrial beer is mainly brewed with wheat with a lower sugar content, combined with corn starch, rice and other sugar-producing raw materials. In addition to commercial beer, there are also some small breweries in the United States that still use a high proportion of barley to brew fine lager according to ancient methods.

3.IPA vs. Others

IPA is one of the most common words many people hear when drinking beer. It is actually the abbreviation of India Pale Ale. It originated in Britain during the Age of Exploration. In order to drink hometown beer in the colonies, but the sea transportation time was too long and the beer preservation technology was not advanced enough at that time, so a lot of "hops" were added to increase the shelf life of the beer. Therefore, the main flavor of IPA is more hops, so the taste is relatively bitter compared to ordinary beer.

Nutrition: Does high calories make you fat? Study: Beer has fewer calories than orange juice

You must have often heard that "drinking alcohol makes you fat". Are all alcoholic drinks high in calories? In fact, the calories in beer are not as high as you think.

A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the correlation between beer and obesity is actually not high. A can of beer with an alcohol content of 5% and a capacity of about 330 ml has about 100 calories, while non-alcoholic orange juice has 150 calories, and a can of 350 ml cola has 149 calories. From this we can see that the calories in beer are not too high, and are even relatively low.

In addition to the "calorie" that is most criticized about alcoholic beverages, there are always people around you who advise you not to drink on the grounds that "drinking is harmful to the body". However, according to the "Introduction to Wine Tasting", drinking beer is actually healthier than you think and has some benefits to the body.

Myth: Is drinking beer good for your health? In fact, there are 4 major benefits

In addition to the "calorie" that is most criticized about alcoholic beverages, there are always people around you who advise you not to drink alcohol because "drinking is harmful to the body". However, according to the "Beginner's Guide to Wine Tasting", drinking beer is actually healthier than you think, and it has the following benefits for the body:

1. Aids Digestion

The carbon dioxide in beer can help gastrointestinal motility, and hops can also promote gastric acid secretion and activate digestive function. (Recommended reading/ How many cans of beer can you drink a day? Why not eat it with barbecue? Nutritionist’s reminder)

2. Strengthen Bones

The International Journal of Endocrinology pointed out in 2013 that the high calcium content in beer can improve bone density and help prevent joint pain and osteoporosis.

3. Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

A study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that after the subjects drank 400 ml of beer for 1 to 2 hours, their blood circulation improved and the concentration of good cholesterol (HDL, High Density Lipoproteins) increased, thereby preventing the risk of arterial blockage and hardening.

4. Relax your body and mind

Alcohol is the most delicious anesthetic substance. Its advantage is that it can distract your attention and relax the drinker's body and mind.

However, despite these unexpected benefits of drinking beer, according to the latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines 2015-2020, "moderate drinking" is defined as a maximum of one beer (355 ml) per day for women and a maximum of two beers (710 ml) per day for men.

The benefits of drinking beer are all based on the premise of "drinking in moderation", because drinking too much of any alcohol may cause high blood pressure, heartache, liver damage, obesity and other problems. Be sure to avoid long-term excessive drinking.

This article is reproduced from / Manager's Eight Points Life

Original title/There are actually hundreds of types of beer! 3 major categories, 4 health benefits, subvert your existing impression

Further reading

What is the difference between craft beer and industrial beer? One picture to understand the difference between the two

How many cans of beer can you drink a day? Why not eat it with barbecue? Nutritionist's reminder