GoodHealthMD.com

Nutrition Facts, Can Beer Be Good For You?

Is beer a healthy nutritious snack?

Beer often has gotten a bad rap as a calorie loaded beverage that only serves to create paunchy beer bellies and alcohol fueled lapses in judgment. That negative image may be beginning to fade. Research has shown that popular foods like chocolate, coffee and red wine are possible disease fighters, add beer to that list.

Nutrition Facts has found research that beer hops contains a unique micronutrient that inhibits cancer causing enzymes. Hop are plants used in beer to give it aroma, flavor and bitterness. Researcher at Oregon State University isolated the compound xanthohumol, which is found in hops. Xanthohumol has several unique effects like inhibiting tumor growth and other enzymes that activate cancer cells. It also helps the body make unhealthy compounds more water soluble, so they can be excreted by the body. Most beers made today are low in hops, so they do not contain much xanthohumol, but some like porter, stout, and ale have much higher levels of the compound.

No one knows how much beer is needed to reap the benefits, mice studies show the compound is metabolized quickly by the body. " It clearly has some interesting chemo prieventive properites and the only way people are getting any of it right now is through beer consumption," says Fred Stevens of Oregon State's College of Pharmacy