Ok, not exactly immortality, but i must say that i’m really banking heavily on the accuracy of various studies publicized in the last few years showing health benefits of two beverages i consume very regularly: coffee and craft beer.
Coffee has lots of potential upsides:
… the preponderance of scientific evidence … suggests that moderate coffee consumption (3-5 cups per day) may be associated with reduced risk of certain disease conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease. Some research in neuropharamacology suggests that one cup of coffee can halve the risk of Parkinson’s disease. Other studies have found it reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, kidney stones, gallstones, depression and even suicide. [...]
In recent epidemiological studies in the U.S., Europe and Japan, persons who were heavy coffee consumers had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than persons who consumed little coffee. Interestingly, he says, associations were similar for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting that coffee components other than caffeine may be beneficial for glucose metabolism.
Coffee contains hundreds of components including substantial amounts of chlorogenic acid, caffeine, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B3, trigonelline, and lignans. Limited evidence suggests that coffee may improve glucose metabolism by reducing the rate of intestinal glucose absorption and by stimulating the secretion of the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is beneficial for the secretion of insulin.
Finding good info on the health benefits of craft beer is trickier because most studies on the health risks vs. benefits of beer make no distinction between macro lagers (Budweiser, Corona, Heineken, etc.) and craft brews (Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Dogfish Head, etc.), and since the vast majority of beer sold around the world is macro lager, craft beer consumption is not a significant percentage of any study. The distinction between these two classes of beer is important because craft beer has two ingredients that macro lagers have little or none of: yeast and hops.
All yeast is filtered out of macro lagers. Furthermore, it is all pasteurized, which kills not only potentially harmful microorganisms, but also potentially beneficial ones as well. Craft brewers aren’t universal in either of these practices. Many larger craft brewers do filter and/or pasteurize, but many don’t. Furthermore, bottle-conditioned craft beer is not uncommon. Bottle-conditioning is the term for naturally carbonating beer via bottling it with live yeast, a process that obviously precludes filtering and pasteurization.
Brewer’s yeast has so many health benefits you can actually buy it as a dietary supplement in pill form. I prefer to get mine the old fashioned way.
It is a rich source of minerals (particularly chromium), protein, and the B-complex vitamins. Brewer’s yeast is bitter in taste and should not be confused with baker’s yeast, nutritional yeast, or torula yeast as these forms of yeast are low in chromium. Chromium is an essential trace mineral that helps the body maintain normal blood sugar levels. It occurs naturally in the environment and is an important contributor to human health. Some experts estimate that as many as 90% of Americans don’t get enough chromium in their diet.
Macro lagers also have only a token amount of hops in them. A typical American lager like Budweiser clocks in at no more than 10 International Bittering Units (IBUs), a measure of bitterness that results from the use of hops in brewing. In contrast, American Pale Ales — one of the most common styles of craft beer in America — have at least 30 IBUs, bolder India Pale Ales (IPAs) have twice that, and Double IPAs may have 100+ IBUs. In other words, some craft beers have literally ten times as many hops as typical macro lagers.
This is incredibly significant in my opinion because of the fairly recent discovery of the cancer-preventing/fighting properties of a compound found in hops, xanthohumol:
In the 1990s, researchers at OSU, including Stevens and toxicologist Don Buhler, began to look at the compound from another perspective – its anti-cancer properties. It showed toxicity to human breast, colon and ovarian cancer cells, and most recently has shown some activity against prostate cancer in OSU studies.
Xanthohumol appears to have several mechanisms of action that relate to its cancer preventive properties, scientists say. It, and other related flavonoid compounds found in hops, inhibit a family of enzymes, commonly called cytochromes P450 that can activate the cancer process. It also induces activity in a “quinone reductase” process that helps the body detoxify carcinogens. And it inhibits tumor growth at an early stage.
To the best of my knowledge no one has determined a minimum consumption level of xanthohumol that would prevent cancer, and i certainly have no basis to claim that frequent Double IPA consumption will guarantee a cancer-free existence. But what i can say is that the studies do indicate consumption of higher levels of the compound is more beneficial than lower levels, and so Double IPAs are preferable to macro lagers from this perspective.
And of course i haven’t even mentioned the most familiar health benefit of beer, one it shares with wine and other alcoholic beverages, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke.
So, to sum up. Coffee and beer: the secret to health and longevity. Sorry, Mormons!
