Beer : Friend And Foe

Beer has been man's best friend since we were in tender high school graduate, and has accompanied us at bar, lounge, party, even at boring wedding party. But for many of us who entered third decades of age, it becomes worst foe because it awarded us with annoying big accessories : beer-bellies.

In my first year at third decades, I've already got a quite charming-beer belly, and I had to change my trouser size twice in last 4 years! It's a shame to see my full-rounded belly, while watching Michael Phelps swimming fast like a shark with excellent body. I doubt that he loved beer like I do.

Wait. Did my beer-belly really grown ONLY by beer? I surfed in internet and found this article in askmen.com. Yes, beer contains high calories that enough to boost our waistline size bigger than your erection, but it's not the only factor leading to our beer-belly problem. There are so many factors, ie high calories consumption from food, gender( male body tend to store extra fat around waist, while female body tend to store it on hips, thighs and buttocks ), declining metabolism rate ( usually after age 35 ), and lack of sport/activity. So, it's not fair to blame your extended waistline size only to beer.

Okay, and how about beer's benefit to our health? Surprisingly some old time beer have significant benefit to our health. Old time / traditional beer usually fermented with Lactobacillus bacteria, like what you found in yogurt fermentation, which encouraged the growth of good bacteria. And most of the beers were made from raw sprouted grains, which increases their nutritive content big time. Result : traditional beer contains significant amount of Vitamin C, Vitamin B, enzymes, mineral, ion, and useful bacteria that support our digestion process. Although traditional beer also contains alcohol, but the alcohol percentage tended to be lower than modern day beer.

But how about our modern day brewed beer? Unfortunately we can not compare traditional beer's benefit to modern beer's benefit. Unlike traditional beer, modern beer commonly made by yeast fermentation, which produces lower nutritional content. And most of mass-produced modern beer usually Pasteurized, make it lost all the bacteria and other living inhabitant, including the useful bacteria.

It's too bad that most of beer displayed at store are modern mass-produced beer with lower nutritional benefit than traditional one. Beer have been accompanied human being from earlier civilization ( it is said that Egyptians has produced beer since 4000 years ago ) and it's pity to see how beer has lost its value in modern civilization. Due to this consideration, I've got to decrease my consumption and trying to get rid on sport activity. I've already devastated to write this posting, so let's go to my bar...