Bier mir!

Eat your vegetables, wash your hands, get your rest, and...have a beer? That’s right, next time you sit down to chomp on a juicy char grilled hamburger or flame kissed fillet, don’t hesitate to top it off with an ice cold beer, it might just do your body good. A recent study conducted in mice reveals that beer reduces the damage to DNA prompted by carcinogens found in overcooked meats.

Now before you go on a drinking binge, remember two important things. First, moderation is key. Second, this study conducted at Okayama University left out a certain component of the beer—its alcohol. Alcohol can be carcinogenic in its own right, so the researches only administered nonalcoholic beer to the mice.

Some mice were given the beer in place of water while others were administered the beer in solid form. A few days into their new diets, the mice were given two heterocylic amines (MeIQx and Trp-P-2), otherwise known as HCA’s, which are carcinogens found in cooked meat. Less than a week later, Dr Sakae Arimoto-Kobayashi analyzed specific cells in key organs for their adducts, or “HCA-induced DNA changes.” These adducts are thought to be the beginnings of cancer. Depending on the HCA administered, the kidneys, lungs, and/or liver were indeed affected. Amazingly, however, the mice that ingested the beer in one form or another had 40-75% fewer adducts than those who had no beer. While this relationship has not been confirmed for human subjects, I still find this cancer preventive connection quite interesting in that beer (again, in moderation) may not be all that bad. Though I am not a huge fan of O’Doul’s, after reading this article I now find some justification in having a beer or two in hopes that the good may in fact help balance the bad and the ugly.

Blake Cannon
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/5937/title/Food_for_Thought__Beers_Well_Done_Benefit