This is strange and perplexing, especially given all the attacks on alcohol in both this country and, as I’ve recently been highlighting, in the UK as well. Beer columnist Eric Braun, who writes for the San Antonio Express-News, in his most recent column began with this incendiary headline: Beer Is Not Health Food. Except that is actually is. Braun seems peeved by that classic of slights, the imagined one. He’s bothered by the fact that during a nearby Houston conference on cancer, the program included — what to regular readers here is old news — the study that xanthohumol (a substance found in hops) is effective in combating cancer. His problem with that comes “when headlines and television announcers start touting that “’beer might actually be good for you.’”
He brings this up because there isn’t enough xanthohumol in the average glass of beer to make any difference and he’s afraid people will use this as excuse to drink more. As someone who read this study when it was first published (and countless more like it) the majority of scientists both in this specific study and those who do this type of work are very, very careful — I’d even say too careful — to NOT suggest that people should use their results to justify increased drinking. I’ve never read one of these studies or their abstracts that come even close to saying people should take their results to mean they should increase their imbibing. Not once. His fears seem misplaced to me. It’s not the scientists at fault, but shoddy journalists who go for style over substance, the “headlines and television announcers [who] start touting that ‘beer might actually be good for you.’” But instead he blames the beer, saying it’s not health food.
Buried toward the end of his piece, Braun finally admits that “[t]he good news is that beer, in moderation, is perfectly healthful for most adults and has been shown to have at least some positive health effects.” I figured he must have known that, but the damage is already done. People will see that headline, conclude what they already believe and what neo-prohibitionists have been telling them — that beer is bad for them — and never even reach the thirteenth paragraph. But it’s the conclusion where he goes off the rails.
The larger point, however, is that if you are drinking to get healthy, you’re doing it all wrong.
Beer should be how you reward yourself for a good day’s work, celebrate a victory for the home team or toast the good life.
That’s just wrong. I think it’s bad advice and nearly irresponsible, in my opinion. The fact is that beer is indeed health food, and can be good for you. The reason Braun has noticed that “several times a year a new medical study is released stating that drinking beer or wine is actually healthful,” is precisely because it is, and evidence keeps mounting to confirm what people have known since the dawn of time. Beer wasn’t called “liquid bread” throughout most of history because it was a cute name, but because it shared the same ingredients and nutritional value and furthermore was safer to drink than water. But beer is, especially good beer, a living food. Real food. That’s been true historically and today beer is far better for you than an equivalent amount of soda, which is loaded with sugar and other chemicals.
But I adamantly disagree that beer should only be a reward, a celebration or used to toast something special, as Braun concludes. That suggests it’s set apart from a healthy lifestyle. He seems to be equating it with dessert, something to have only once in a while. But the fact is that regularly drinking moderately is healthier than either abstaining altogether or drinking heavily. To me that means moderate consumption of alcohol is part of a healthy lifestyle. How could it be otherwise? Drink responsibly and you’ll live longer. How is that not a health food?
From Professor David J. Hanson’s wonderful Alcohol Problems and Solutions:
Moderate drinkers tend to have better health and live longer than those who are either abstainers or heavy drinkers. In addition to having fewer heart attacks and strokes, moderate consumers of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine or distilled spirits or liquor) are generally less likely to suffer hypertension or high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer’s disease and the common cold.
Sensible drinking also appears to be beneficial in reducing or preventing diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, bone fractures and osteoporosis, kidney stones, digestive ailments, stress and depression, poor cognition and memory, Parkinson’s disease, hepatitis A, pancreatic cancer, macular degeneration (a major cause of blindness), angina pectoris, duodenal ulcer, erectile dysfunction, hearing loss, gallstones, liver disease and poor physical condition in elderly.
I hate to call out a fellow colleague, another beer columnist, but I just can’t figure what Braun’s angle is in this article. What point is he trying to make? Can it really be as simple as he honestly doesn’t believe beer is healthy? He can’t really be worried that someone might read those health claims, even if inflated, and actually decide to start drinking heavily, can he? Looking over some of his other recent columns, it seems like normal run-of-the-mill stuff, talking about favorite craft beers from last year or what beer to drink during the football playoffs.
But there it is, hanging in the air, “beer isn’t health food,” and me silently screaming at my computer screen. “Yes it is! What is the matter with you? Why would you say that?” I just don’t get it. Aren’t there enough attacks on alcohol already?
Could it be he was pressured into his stance? Although I’ve never lived in either the Bay Area nor San Antonio, I can only speculate that the public view of beer differs. For that matter, I’d almost bet that freedom of speech and press are viewed differently in TX than CA (more notably, Northern CA).
Just a simple thought.
Boy, when I saw on twitter that some dopey columnist had thrown beer under the bus, my first reaction was, “let’s get ’em!” Pretty surprised to see that it was my column, so now I’m conflicted.
First of all, BigNastyBrew, freedom of the press isn’t viewed any differently here in Texas. It was my column from concept to the press, any editing to it was minor.
My problem isn’t with the scientists at all. It was precisely what you mention about the shoddy journalism that takes a small point and runs with it.
Further, I think most of us who love craft beers do drink in moderation, or something close to it. Craft beers are also much better for you, as you point out. What I worry about with these stories is that they are watched by the macro beer crowd who are drinking for quantity, not quality.
But still, and I tried to make this point in the column, the health benefits of beer — at least to me — pale in comparison to it benefits to my overall quality of life.
Wait … are you ACTUALLY trying to postulate with this blog that beer IS a health food? I’m going to have to say that I think Eric hit the nail on the head – the macro crowd, who have damaged livers and protruding beer guts and suffer from obesity and a number of other health issues due in no small part to their imbibing, read out-of-context headers as you’re throwing out there and say, “Oh, WOW! I can drink MORE and be HEALTHY!”
All that’s happened here is a gross misuse of what PR practitioners around the globe refer to as “spin”. There is one little part of the hops that is beneficial – does that make beer itself beneficial? What about the psuedoephedrine used in cough medicines like Sudafed – it’s good for us when applied in moderation. Does that mean crystal meth – another dirivitive of psuedoephedrine – is a healthy thing to partake of? Because I’m pretty sure THAT would come as a shock to the surgeon general.
All in all … Jay Brooks looks like an idiot here. Yell silently at your computer screen all you want. Make sure you drink all the beer you can – after all … it’s pretty much the same as a protein shake, right? Add some meth in there – nothing more than just a little vitamin supplement. Maybe make yourself some hash brownies and call them energy bars … whatever you want to do.
Just PLEASE to all of us a favor and don’t become an organ donor while you’re doing so.
Yes Josh, I am. It is. Talk about missing the point.
First of all, moderation is the key. Nobody — not me, Not Eric, not the scientists — said people should drink more as a result of this study, another study, or for any reason whatsoever. That you think I said “drink MORE and be HEALTHY” says more about you than me.
Like it or not, beer is healthy in moderation. It’s more healthy to drink moderately than to not drink at all. This is true not just because of xanthohumol but because of a number of factors, from all of the natural ingredients in beer to the fact that real beer contains no artificial chemicals or additives like many other foods and drinks. It’s not true because I say so, but because study after study confirms it to be true. And how did you not get that we’re talking about craft beer here, not macro beer. I have to conclude that you read this selectively, ignoring everything that didn’t fit your worldview already.
If somebody is stupid enough to not read on and use a headline as an excuse to drink more, well I’d say they probably would have found a reason to drink more no matter what.
Beer is hardly the biggest cause of obesity or the other problems you ascribe to it. Beer has less calories than any other alcohol per ounce. The beer belly is a myth. It comes more often from eating too much, though sometimes when drinking too much, too. But it’s the food that causes the gut to bust. A 12 oz. Coke and a Budweiser have nearly identical calories. So why isn’t it called a soda belly?
As for calling me names and making this personal, I can only say that your criticisms are so far off the mark for what I actually said that I have to wonder about your comprehension of the English language. You’ve put so many words in my mouth I never said that I’m not even sure you actually understood what I wrote. And that’s a shame, because we could use less ignorance in the world today. Beer is healthy in moderation. Sorry, but there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s true.
Josh,
So your saying that all those obese beer drinkers of macro swill are in that shape, with bad hearts and blood vessels due to the drinking? Or could it possibly be the food that they eat when they drink? The artery clogging fried foods? Trans Fats? etc instead of their ultra light beers with little calories? Let’s not look at a microcism of the population and say: “Hey they drink beer and they are overweight, ergo, drinking beer makes you fat” Thats just not true.
“If somebody is stupid enough to not read on and use a headline as an excuse to drink more, well I’d say they probably would have found a reason to drink more no matter what.”
That’s a very good point.
I’ll admit to overselling the headline. Shameless plea for attention. Guilty.