Alcohol Abuse Advice

Beer Alcohol Calories And Health ? A Conscious Approach To Beer Consumption

Many persons – especially young persons – who wish to approach the beer, often have questions about the quantity of alcohol in the beer, the effect of alcohol on their health and the calories supplied by beer. Generally, they have concern if a regular consumption of beer may damage their health or contribute to make grow in weight (a current nightmare of rich civilizations….) and they want to know the recommended amount and why it is better to not exceed. 

Since the safest way to approach alcohol is to know it, this article wants to give simple basic answers to these common questions: 

1. how does alcohol work and what its effects are?

2. how much alcohol and calories are contained in a beer?

3. what is the recommended consumption for a safe drinking? 

Having a clear vision of these basic questions and answers may help, I hope, to approach beer (or wine or other alcoholic beverages) without fear and without superficiality.

Of course, first answer would require a much deeper discussion. Basically, we can say that alcohol we find in alcoholic beverages comes from fermentation of sugars contained in fruits or, as in the case of beer, from starch contained in cereals. After digestion, alcohol enters the blood: in this way, it reaches the brain and goes round the whole organism. Using specific enzymes, liver transforms it in substances that kidneys, lungs and skin eliminate through urine, breath and sweat. In normal conditions, we assume that the liver is able to transform about 6 grams of alcohol every hour. Since 330 ml serving of a lager or pilsner beer (roughly equivalent to 12 fluid oz) at 4.5 % ABV contains approximately 12 g of alcohol (4.5% of 330 cc is 14,85 ml alcohol by volume, this is equivalent to 12 g alcohol by weight), it means that it takes two hours to fully dispel a standard can of beer. The elimination is much easier if alcohol is assumed during meals, since in this case, the release of alcohol into blood happens more gradually. Alcohol has hence a primary impact on the liver: if liver is charged by a continuous heavy work to transform alcohol, it may incur grave diseases. 

The key fact to keep in mind is that the effects of alcohol on our health strongly depend on the quantity. There are no doubts that a prolonged heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages is harmful to health and may cause serious diseases as cirrhosis, stomach cancer, ulcers and mental disorders. But scientific studies carried out in last century have highlighted that a moderate consumption of alcohol may be beneficial on many respects: moderate drinkers result to be more protected against hearth attacks, hypertension, peripheral artery diseases and so on. There is a long list of proved benefits of a low alcohol consumption. Moreover, beer is not just alcohol: like wine, beer contains polyphenols, which have been demonstrated to have a significant effect in protecting cells against the bad effects of free radicals. Beer also has a high concentration of silicon, an important mineral for the healthy of bones: women who moderately drink beer seem to have a higher bone density, and this may be highly significant in fighting osteoporosis. 

Now we can agree on the point that a moderate quantity of beer is an ally rather that an enemy of our health. But what about calories? Are you sure that drinking beer does not make us fat? To answer this question, please have the patience to suffer a little bit of math. Beer is largely made of water (more than 90 per cent) where the substances which confer its characteristic flavour are dissolved: useful minerals (potassium, magnesium), B vitamins, phenolic compounds and other elements without caloric relevance. The calories of a beer are mainly provided by the content of alcohol and unfermented carbohydrates (i.e. the amount of carbohydrates remaining from the fermentation process): alcohol provides about 7 kcal per gram, carbohydrates 4 kcal per gram. The quantity of alcohol and carbs are really variable depending on the different recipes and beer styles. A 250 ml intake of normal lager (the most consumed in the world) may contain about 9 g alcohol and something as 7-8 g carbs: it provides less than 100 kcal. This is not dramatic, anyway is less than the calories of a sugared soft drink like Coke (110 kcal for a 250 ml intake). 

Let us come to question three now: the proper quantity for a safe drinking. To be honest, we should say that probably only God knows what it is for each one of us. However, the health authorities of most countries have defined a recommended daily or weekly consumption which can be taken as a valid guide to not incur risks. The other valid guide is ourselves: every one can learn to detect when the amount of assumed alcohol is going to become excessive before it has become excessive. Recommended values are slightly different in each country, generally we can say they are in the range 20-40 g a day for healthy men, 16-30 g for healthy women. In USA the limit for men is 14-28 g/day, with recommendation to not exceed 196 g/week (14 g/day, 98 g/week for women). 

A good reason to follow the guideline is that alcohol may create dependencies and push us to assume always increasing quantities. Guidelines are precious, but in practice, how can we calculate how much grams of alcohol are in a beer? This is the last task we have to complete. The alcohol content of a beverage is commonly expressed as percentage of the volume (Alcohol By Volume). For example, 4.5 ABV means that 4.5 % of the volume is constituted of alcohol. So, a 330 ml can of beer (roughly equivalent to a 12 U.S. fluid oz can, which is 355 ml) contains 14.85 ml of alcohol. To obtain the value in grams, we have to multiply by the specific weight of alcohol, i.e. 0.79: a 330 ml can of beer, contains 11.73 g alcohol (as homework, you can take fun to determine the exact alcohol amount contained in a 12 U.S. fluid oz can!). Following the government indication, if you are a woman, you would better give up drinking for that day.