Good news for those of us who like a nice glass of beer, tapped fresh from the barrel. A maximum of two to four glasses of beer per day reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Scientific research has shown that moderate beer consumption benefits the general state of health. And better yet. Total abstainers are more susceptible to certain disorders than are those of us who drink the occasional glass of beer.

Professor Denis De Keukeleire, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Rijksuniversiteit Ghent, has spent the last 35 years researching hop and beer. "It stopped being my job a long time ago. It’s my passion". For so he gave us to understand in the Brussels Grote Markt, also known as the Grand Place.
"I always knew that drinking beer was healthy. Well, as long as you don’t get carried away, of course. One or two glasses a day, three or four glasses for men. Men metabolize alcohol better before it hits the stomach. Wine can’t hurt, although of course there’s no hop in it. The main thing to remember is not to drink more than 20 to 40 g pure alcohol per day."
Own research and international studies, involving 22 000 male doctors in the 40 to 84 age bracket, seems to reveal among other things that moderate alcohol consmption has a helpful effect as regards the prevention of health problems. It reduces the risk by as much as twenty percent. That applies for cerebral haemorrhages. The accepted wisdom of science is still at a loss as to why that should ever be. "Cardiovascular problems are less common among careful drinkers than among teetotallers", thus spake Professor De Keukeleire. A glass or two a day keeps the insulin and cholesterol levels where they should be. And, so says Professor De Keukeleire, anyone who thinks that drinling beer is bad for the waistline is well wide of the mark. A normal glass of beer contains 103 calories. That is less than a glass of milk (118 calories), or a glass of apple juice (120 calories) or a tub of yogurt (228 calories).

  |terug|mail|print|top|