In short, no. Beer is certainly not good for your health. But it depends how broadly you define health. Sure, alcohol is a poison. Anyone who tells you otherwise is deeply misguided. Accordingly to a study published in 2018 in the Lancet, the most prestigious medicinal journal in the world, the safest amount of alcohol for consumption is exactly zero. Why? Because over 50 comorbidities are associated with regular alcohol consumption.

Alcohol is a hydrocarbon solution that’s highly toxic to all life forms. We even use it as an antiseptic. Sure, that’s not the type of alcohol you drink, but the molecule is pretty close. The human body can handle tiny amounts of ethyl alcohol, thanks to the days when the wildest cocktail nature offered was a handful of overripe berries. But our livers aren’t built to handle 2 to 3 pints of 5% beer, let alone straight 40% liquor.

Alcohol wipes out our healthy gut bacteria, scrambles our brains, cranks up sensitivity to dopamine, erodes DNA, and ramps up addictive, compulsive behavior. So, while it might feel like a social lubricant, remember it’s also wreaking havoc inside you.

Accros the Atlantic, American author Edward Slingerhand takes a completely opposite view. If alcohol has ben dubbed to be so dangerous, it is because alcohol consumption as a topic has been coopted by medical science. This leaves out a huge chunk of what alcohol means for society : a social lubricant. Edward Slingerhand argues that for all the evils of society, alcohol has at the very least provided a safer space for self-expression and conflict resolution.

Why the Health Myth?

Let’s back a bit. We moderns don’t understand how difficult life was millenia ago. People lived shorter lives, ate less and stressed much more.

Beer has been linked to health benefits for ages, mainly because it started off as a food. Made from water and grain, it’s packed with vitamins and nutrients. Back in the day, people added all sorts of ingredients, like herbs, to help treat various illnesses. So, beer often served as a base for all kinds of healing concoctions.

Beer is made from natural ingredients like water, grain, hops, and yeast, and it’s nourishing. It has minerals and vitamins that are energizing. Salts and minerals in beer are important for maintaining blood and endocrine balance, as well as keeping nerve cells healthy. Beer contains calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium.

The yeast in beer is especially rich in B-complex vitamins: B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B6 (pyridoxine), and PP (niacin). Beer also has energy-boosting components like amino acids, alcohol, dextrins, carbohydrates, and maltose—basically, calories.

Hops were the conservation agents of the times

Hops play an important part in beer’s medicinal properties, particularly its calming qualities. We often think of alcohol as helping us to relax, but in reality it numbs us, even if it seems like a form of relaxation to some. It’s mainly the hops, specifically lupulin, that act as a soothing agent.

Because of its production process, which involves boiling water, and its alcohol content, beer is bacteria-free. This may seem obvious, but when you’re traveling in exotic countries where turista is a real concern, beer is far more beneficial than tap water or the water used to prepare cocktails or fruit juices, which are often made from concentrates. When traveling, it’s a welcome preventive drink.

Pierre-Olivier Bussières is the Editor-in-Chief of Hoppy History and Uber Optimized. He is the Sales and Marketing Director at Uberflix Studio. He also writes about travel, geopolitics, and alcohol markets, and has published articles in The Diplomat, Reflets, The Main, Go Nomad, Global Risk Insights, and Diplomatie.