Moderate Consumption of Beer and Its Effects on Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health: An Updated Review of Recent Scientific Evidence.

Ascensión Marcos,Francisco Pérez-Jiménez,Vicente Pascual,Francisco José Tinahones,Lluís Serra-Majem,Ramón Estruch

doi:10.3390/nu13030879

Abstract

There is growing interest in the potential health-related effects of moderate alcohol consumption and, specifically, of beer. This review provides an assessment of beer-associated effects on cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors to identify a consumption level that can be considered “moderate”. We identified all prospective clinical studies and systematic reviews that evaluated the health effects of beer published between January 2007 and April 2020. Five of six selected studies found a protective effect of moderate alcohol drinking on cardiovascular disease (beer up to 385 g/week) vs. abstainers or occasional drinkers. Four out of five papers showed an association between moderate alcohol consumption (beer intake of 84 g alcohol/week) and decreased mortality risk. We concluded that moderate beer consumption of up to 16 g alcohol/day (1 drink/day) for women and 28 g/day (1–2 drinks/day) for men is associated with decreased incidence of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality, among other metabolic health benefits.

Highlights

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the potential health-related effects of moderate alcohol consumption
For other health effects, such as those on general or abdominal obesity, study data have generally been inconclusive, a recent small study suggests that moderate consumption of either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beer does not increase body weight in obese individuals [46]
Moderate beer consumption has been associated with decreased diabetes risk, and with an increase in bone mineral density (BMD), which lowers the risk of fracture in the elderly

Summary

Introduction

There has been an increasing interest in the potential health-related effects of moderate alcohol consumption. The harmful effects of excessive alcohol use are well established, the association of low-to-moderate alcohol consumption with health-related benefits is still controversial, since the results of available studies are not homogeneous and reaching clear conclusions is challenging. This lack of consensus is observed in alcohol consumption guidelines published in the last five years, which use different terminology (“risky drinking”, “moderate consumption”, or “low-risk drinking”).

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