Portuguese scientists said they have found evidence that moderate consumption of beer may be good for our gut health and that both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer seem to have a positive effect.
Researchers from Nova University Lisbon, in Portugal, asked 19 healthy adult men in a double-blind, randomised study to drink 325ml of alcoholic or non-alcoholic lager with dinner every day for four weeks. The alcoholic beers contained 5.2 per cent of alcohol by volume.
The men, with an average age of 35 years, drank the same amount of beer before the start of the study and were considered to be “moderate drinkers”.
Blood and stool samples were collected before and after the research, enabling the scientists study the subjects’ gut bacteria using a special gene-sequencing method.
They found that drinking either non-alcoholic or alcoholic beer every day for four weeks didn’t make people gain weight or body fat and it didn’t significantly change certain health markers in the blood.
Both types of beer did increase the variety of gut bacteria, which is linked to better health. Drinking beer also seemed to improve intestinal barrier function, which is also important for gut health, according to boffins.
The scientists said the result might be due to certain compounds in the beer known as polyphenols and that some beers may contain “good” live fermentation microorganisms.
The Flemish Gut Flora Project, one of the largest population-wide studies to assess the variation of gut microbiota among healthy individuals, has also shown that beer consumption is a key influence on the overall microbiota composition.
In their conclusion, the scientists in Portugal said: “Therefore, given the importance of the gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, gut microbiota modulation might constitute another mechanism mediating the effects of beer on health.”
In addition, they noted: “It has been shown by our group that decreased bacterial diversity increased the risk for severe Covid-19, for which obesity and diabetes are important risk factors.”
The science follows earlier research indicating that fermented beverages such as red wine have also been shown to induce favourable changes in the gut microbiome due to their high polyphenol content.
It seems beers with higher amounts of polyphenols and yeast may have an even greater positive impact on the gut microbiome.
