Beer, All Types, Styles

Some alcohol drinks can be tolerated, but do not go out of your way to start consuming them if they are not already part of your diet. Beer is highly glycemic and potentially allergenic. Dry wine is acceptable and red wine is mildly healthful when consumed in moderation. One might be surprised at the moderate classification of spirits like gin and whiskey. Most spirits are all right, especially if diluted in a suitable, low-sugar mixer (for example, whiskey and soda; gin and diet tonic). Bear in mind that alcohol is empty calories and it disrupts your body's ability to burn fat, so you will struggle to lose weight if you consume alcohol.

It is an interesting thought that in ancient times, no one had a means of boiling water. It was not until the invention of kiln-fired pottery in Egypt around 6000 B.C.76 Deadly Harvest that water could be heated and infused with herbs to give it flavor. Within a heartbeat of learning how to make pots, these inventive people also discovered how to ferment beverages to make forms of beer and wine. In short order, most civilizations adopted, or discovered for themselves, local variations on these basic beverages.

Today, the choice of fermented drinks has narrowed down to two main types, wine and beer. Wine is made from grapes and can have an alcoholic strength up to 13%. Beer is made from malted barley and has strengths between 4% and 6% alcohol; most varieties of beer are flavored with hops to give it a bitter taste. Consumption of wine in the U.S. has increased from 1.3 gallons per person per year in 1970 to 2.2 gallons annually in 2002. For beer, the figures show an increase from 18.5 gallons per person per year to 22.0 gallons annually. (These are figures covering the whole population, not just those of drinking age.)

Our species, like most on the planet, are designed to get most of their liquid intake from water. Until recent times, that was still the case for us, even in the West. But we have seen the rise of alternative drinks, which have come along just in the average grandparent's lifetime. Setting aside wine, distilled spirits, and liqueurs, which are not thirst quenchers, what are we now consuming instead of water? When we add up the figures for beer, tea, coffee, cocoa, soft drinks, juices, and milk, we find that the average American is consuming, in a year, 150 gallons of liquid that is not plain water— that comes to 3.25 pints per day!

Wine, particularly red wine, contains a number of micronutrients that appear to be helpful to health, especially cardiovascular conditions and cancers. The proviso is that you should drink no more than a couple of glasses per day. After that, the alcohol content takes over and starts to dominate the consequences. Wine, particularly dry wine, does not have the catastrophic effect on health that beer can have—wine drinkers on the whole suffer less from beer belly and the sugar diseases. Spirits have higher concentrations of alcohol, so the limit is reached more quickly and this is their main danger. But they do not provoke the sugar diseases like beer does. There is some evidence that high alcohol concentrations irritate the mouth, throat, and esophagus linings to the point where cancers develop. Spirits do not have any worthwhile concentrations of nutrients. Liqueurs suffer the same drawbacks and have an additional one— high sugar content. Liqueurs are doubly fattening (sugar and alcohol) and have nothing worthwhile to contribute nutritionally.

Professor Serge Renaud dug deeper and found that there were strong regional differences. In Toulouse, in the southwest of France, a Mediterranean-type diet was practised. While not consuming much olive oil, the Toulousains did use duck and goose fat rather than butter. He found that they drank red wine copiously— up to one bottle per person per day (it is the Bordeaux region after all). In contrast, in the northern city of Strasbourg, on the border with Germany, the diet is more "Anglo-Saxon": the population drank much more milk, used butter for everything, and drank beer rather than wine.

Sulfur, in many forms, is found everyw here in processed food— in packaged salads, jams, hamburgers, sausages, instant soup, beer, and wine. People who eat a lot of processed foods not only promote sulfur bacteria in their gut, they also raise their sensitivity to allergic reactions.

Beer is brewed using the sugars from malted barley, so there is a percentage of the highly glycemic sugar, maltose. There is usually about 4 grams per 100 ml, which translates to about 3 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounce can. Beer is in itself a "bad" carbohydrate with a high glycemic index. That is why big beer drinkers tend to suffer from the various sugar diseases— and put on a beer belly— when wine drinkers do not.