Could Beer Be Good for You?

Moderation is still key, but it seems that beer may have an ingredient that could be good for your bones, possibly helping to protect against osteoporosis.

Dietary silicon is an important ingredient for increasing bone mineral density, and researchers from the University of California, Davis recently studied the silicon content in 100 commercial beers, categorizing the silicon content by beer style and source.

The average silicon content of the beers was 6.4 to 56.5 mg/L. That’s a pretty big range, and some of the additional findings below will help explain the differences.

The average silicon in parts per million (ppm) for ales was 32.8. Light lagers had an average of 17.2 ppm silicon, while regular lagers had 23.8 ppm. The average silicon content of all beers tested was 29.4 ppm.

Other findings:

• Wheat-based beers had less silicon than those with more hops, like India Pale Ale (IPA) beers, which had an average of 41.2 ppm of silicon content.
• Darker products with a lot of roasting like black malt, chocolate and roasted barley had less silicon.
• Malting doesn’t greatly affect the silicon content of barley, plus the malts with the highest silicon are those that are pale in color.
• Beers from the US had more silicon content than international beers studied.

Researchers concluded that beer is a major source of silicon, and that beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are the richest in silicon. It’s the husk of the barley that’s the best source of silicon.

More details about this study can be found in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society of Chemical Industry.

(Image via stock.xchng)