MBAA Home

Public Perceptions of Beer in Relation to Health: New Opportunities and Challenges

MBAA TQ vol. 37, Number 4, 2000, Pages 519-524 VIEW ARTICLE

By E. Denise Baxter Brewing Research International, Nutfield, Surrey, UK. Paper presented July, 2000, at the Opening General Session of the World Brewing Congress 2000 held in Orlando, Florida, USA. The theme of the Opening General Session was "Health and Alcohol Issues in our Contemporary Society".

Abstract
This paper addresses the perception of beer from early to contempo-rary times and how those perceptions have changed. Until the middle of the twentieth century, beer had retained its healthy image and it was only around the 1970's that concerns about potential adverse effects of alcohol on health, particularly chronic effects, began to sur-face. The drastic change in life expectancy brought about by scientif-ic advances allowed people to live long enough for chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease to become apparent. At the same time, analytical capabilities were developed which allow minute traces of residue chemicals to be detected in places and products pre-viously thought to be residue-free. This has caused the all to familiar food scares that we have experienced. We now know that moderate consumption of alcohol may actually protect against heart disease. We also know that beer contains other beneficial nutrients and it is time that the brewing industry finds ways to promote the healthy ben-efits of moderate beer consumption.
Keywords: beer and health, alcohol and health, benefits of alcohol  

Sintesis
Este documento se refiere a la percepci�n de la cerveza desde los primeros tiempos hasta los tiempos contempor�neos y como han cambiado estas percepciones. Hasta la mitad del siglo veinte, la cerveza hab�a retenido su imagen saludable y no fue sino hasta alrededor de los 1970s cuando las preocupaciones sobre los poten-ciales efectos adversos del alcohol en la salud, particularmente los efectos cr�nicos, empezaron a resurgir. El cambio dr�stico en el promedio de vida causado por los avances cient�ficos permitieron a la gente vivir m�s tiempo para que las enfermedades cr�nicas tales como el c�ncer y enfermedades del coraz�n se hicieran aparentes. Al mismo tiempo, las capacidades anal�ticas fueron desarrolladas de tal manera que permitieron detectar part�culas diminutas de residuos qu�micos en lugares y productos que con anterioridad se hab�an con-siderado como libres de residuos. Esto ha causado los bien conoci-dos p�nicos de alimentos que hemos experimentado. Nosotros sabemos ahora que el consumo en moderaci�n de alcohol puede en realidad proteger contra enfermedades del coraz�n. Tambi�n sabe-mos que la cerveza contiene otros nutrientes ben�ficos y ya es tiem-po de que la industria cervecera encuentra formas de promover los beneficios de salud del consumo de cerveza con moderaci�n. T

HOME | CONTACT | JOIN/RENEW | ADVERTISE | STORE

© Copyright Master Brewers Association of Americas