Superfood beer?
Superfood. You come across the word everywhere at present. In magazines, restaurants, recipes and self-help books. To say nothing of Instagram. A “Superfood Salad” has even made it into the beer tent. The term describes foodstuffs with (alleged) health advantages. Whether it’s goji berries, acai berries, chia seeds or chlorella algae – with such exotic names, the products surely must be almost healthy. Or must they? Meanwhile, it’s being widely rumoured that these alleged miracle foods are nothing more than a mere marketing trick. But it’s up to each of you to form your own opinion on this. The salient characteristic of a superfood is, of course, numerous healthy constituents. But lots of domestic foods have this advantage as well – it’s just that kale, sauerkraut or linseed unfortunately don’t sound quite so alluring.
But what about one of the Germans’ staple foods? Does beer have what it takes to qualify as a superfood? “Never”, some of our readers will cry. Because no matter how good a reputation beer may have – in regard to fitness and health, the amber nectar tends to be seen as a villain. After all, the beer belly is evidence enough. But are things really that simple? Does beer have an adverse effect on our figures? Do we have to cut out beer if we want a toned, athletic body? “Please not”, lots of you are probably thinking now (myself included). So I looked into the matter more closely, and now I’m sharing my findings with you.
Here’s the good news: in itself, consuming beer will not harm your astral body. And here’s the bad news: the attendant circumstances will. When you drink beer, you see, you will mostly get hungry as well. And not an “Oh, a nice salad would be just the thing right now” hunger, but “The fattier the better” hunger.
“Six beers are a meal in themselves – and you haven’t even drunk anything yet.”
Two or three beers in the evening quickly add up to around 500 kcal. That roughly corresponds to another meal. But have you ever felt sated just from drinking beer? No. The problem, you see, is that your body converts the alcohol in the beer directly into fat, and doesn’t use it as an energy supplier. Which is why you need “something proper” in addition to a “liquid lunch”. And with men this tends to show up on the belly, and with women on the thighs and buttocks.
But let’s ignore the attendant circumstances, and concentrate solely on the beer as such. It contains not only minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium, you see, but also various B-vitamins and secondary vegetable substances like polyphenols. These are present in beer only in a diluted form and in small quantities, but when you compare the contents with other alcoholic beverages, the figure is relatively high. And there’s some even better news: the hops contained in beer are not only an important constituent in regard to the taste, but for health as well. The female fruit spikes of the climbing plant are even used as a medicine. The constituents help to combat loss of appetite, gastric disorders, and anxiety states. What’s more, hops have a generally calming effect and stimulate the metabolism.
To my ears, that sounds pretty much like a superfood or superdrink. To be fair, though, I have to admit that the healthy constituents are even more efficacious in a hop tea – but it’s not nearly as much fun.
To sum up, it can be said that for beer too, as with so many things, it depends on the quantity involved. In moderation, you can enjoy beer with a clear conscience and even imbibe a few useful constituents into the bargain. And there’s some particularly good news for the ladies: women who drink beer regularly, according to my researches, benefit from it, and are on average slimmer than women who cut out beer entirely. And if you can control yourself when it comes to snacks, you have nothing to fear in terms of your figure. But it’s easier said than done. After all, beer-drinking is supposed to be fun. So don’t take the fitness trend too seriously – enjoy your beer and do some sport to burn off the calories.
For those of you who want to know anyway, we’ve listed here the calorific values of various beer types:
BEWARE SPOILERS!!! (read on at your own risk)
All figure per 100 ml
Pilsner: 42 kcal
Pilsner alcohol-free: 26 kcal
Yeast wheat beer: 42 kcal
Yeast wheat beer alcohol-free: 21 kcal
Light wheat beer: 30 kcal
Shandy: 34 kcal
Export: 53 kcal
By the way, what are called low-calorie beers can be alternatives to “normal” beers. You can read up on these here.
