Sunday, August 16, 2009

Drink Beer for Healthy Bones, Girls

In the days of yore, when I was a student, if I strayed too far into normal pubs and away from the usual student hangouts, I was looked upon with great suspicion if I tried to order a pint. I remember being told at least once that they didn't serve pints to women. Needless to say, I left. Even when we lived in Nottinghamshire, ordering a pint of real ale and being female had its incompatibilities.

Anyway, I was amused to see this story which suggests that moderate consumption of beer can actually protect women from Osteoporosis. However, you get the best results if you're naughty and consume more per week than the Government thinks is safe - around a pint a day on top of the two units you are allowed to be exact.

The Osteoporosis Society was at best bemused by the research and was at pains to warn us not to drink too much:

"While low quantities of alcohol may appear to have bone density benefits, higher intakes have been shown to decrease bone strength, with an alcohol intake of more than two units per day actually increasing the risk of breaking a bone.

"There are also many other health concerns linked with alcohol which cannot be ignored."

The good thing about the research is that they think that plant hormones present in beer may have something to do with improving bone health and these will no doubt be studied more and might lead to something which helps reduce the misery of Osteoporosis.

In the meantime, mine's a pint of St Peter's Well....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ale is definitely my tipple of choice, but I know what you mean about it being seen as incompatible with femaleness in some quarters. A previous male boss once took me for drinks with a client and some colleagues, also all male, and on ascertaining that the whole party wanted beer, automatically fetched a half-pint for me and a pint for everyone else. (It did him no favours at all with the client, who was a good bloke and quite observant.) I also once caused a ridiculous amount of consternation in my student bar by ordering a pint and a G&T and then immediately handing the G&T to my male companion.

On a more positive note, we had a holiday on the Caledonian Canal last week, and I became quite fond of Red Kite, which is an organic Black Isle ale. My husband also rather liked Trade Winds.

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