Health-Promoting Ingredients in Beer

By Caroline Walker and E. D. Baxter Brewing Research International, Lyttel hall, Nutfield, Surrey, United Kingdom. This paper was originally presented at the MBAA 112th Anniversary Convention, Keystone, Colorado, 1999.

Abstract
It has been recognized for many years that beer is a good source of several micro-nutrients, including a number of vitamins, especially the B-vitamins, and essential minerals, such as potassium, magne-sium and silicon. More recently, a substantial body of clinical stud-ies has shown that moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. This pro-tective effect is generally ascribed to ethanol itself. However, a num-ber of studies suggest that some plant phytochemicals, including many that occur in hops and malt, can also provide additional health benefits, for example, via anti-mutagenic effects. This paper will review our current understanding of potentially health-promoting ingredients in beer.
Keywords: beer, malt, hops, health benefits  

Sintesis
Se ha reconocido por muchos a�os que la cerveza es una buena fuente de varios micro nutrientes, incluyendo un n�mero de vitami-nas, especialmente vitaminas del grupo B y minerales esenciales, tales como potasio, magnesio y silic�n. Recientemente, un substan-cial cuerpo de estudios cl�nicos han demostrado que el consumo moderado de bebidas alcoh�licas est� asociado con un riesgo reduci-do de enfermedades cardiacas. Este efecto protector se debe al efec-to del alcohol por si mismo. Sin embargo, un n�mero de estudios sugieren que algunos fitoqu�micos de las plantas, incluyendo muchos contenidos en el l�pulo y la malta, tambi�n pueden proveer benefi-cios a la salud adicionales, por ejemplo, por medio de efectos anti-mutog�nicos. Este documento revisar� nuestro conocimiento actual de los ingredientes de la cerveza que pueden ser promotores de la salud.