Glass of Guinness: Drink to your health?

Hartford Courant ^ | April 4, 2004 | Kevin Hunt

[southernnorthcarolina]

Guy walks into a bar, orders a 12-ounce bottle of Corona Extra. Another guy walks in, orders a 12-ounce Guinness draft.

Whose drink is healthier?

If the guidelines are less alcohol, fewer calories, fewer carbohydrates and, to top it off, protection against heart attacks and blindness, it's the Guinness drinker, hands down.

No joke.

Guinness, in fact, is lower in alcohol, calories and carbohydrates than Samuel Adams, Budweiser, Heineken and almost every other major-brand beer not classified as light or low-carb. It has fewer calories and carbohydrates than low-fat milk and orange juice.

Could this be the same Irish stout that looks like a root-beer float and tastes about as filling as a quarter-pounder with cheese?

Yes.

The tastes-great, more-filling formula defies nutritional expectations because Guinness is so low in alcohol, a source of empty calories. Guinness is 4.2 percent alcohol by volume, the same as Coors Light. Budweiser and Heineken check in at 5 percent.

"That surprised me," says Dr. Joseph Brennan, a Yale-New Haven Hospital cardiologist of Irish heritage and a confirmed Guinness drinker. "I could never understand why one or two wouldn't leave me light-headed."

Brennan, like many cardiologists, recommends a drink a day for his cardiac patients. Red wine, in particular, has been shown to help prevent heart attacks. Now maybe it's beer's turn. A University of Wisconsin study last fall found that moderate consumption of Guinness worked like aspirin to prevent clots that increase the risk of heart attacks.

In the study, Guinness proved twice as effective as Heineken at preventing blood clots. Guinness is loaded with flavonoids, antioxidants that give the dark color to many fruits and vegetables.

These antioxidants are better than vitamins C and E, the study found, at keeping bad LDL cholesterol from clogging arteries. Blocked arteries also contributes to erectile dysfunction, as does overindulgence in alcohol.

Guinness has a higher concentration than lighter beers of vitamin B, which lowers levels of homocysteine, linked to clogged arteries.

And researchers have found that antioxidants from the moderate use of stout might reduce the incidence of cataracts by as much as 50 percent.

[expatpat]

The interesting thing is that stout used to be given to pregnant and birthing women in hospital when I lived in England -- I guess it's rich in iron and B-vitamins.

[Lurker]

There's a reason that Guiness is lower in alcohol content. It's because in Ireland beer is taxed according to its abv (alcohol by volume).

The higher the alcohol, the more tax the drinker pays. Believe it or not, the Guiness that is exported to the US actually has a higher alcohol content than what is served in the pubs in Ireland.

Guiness is good, but you should taste the homebrew chocolate stout Mrs. L and I brew up. Yummy!

L

[ozaukeemom]

ping

[Gerasimov]

I could drink it for breakfast.

LOL ... I often do. I work the overnight shift and my wife and neighbors get pretty freaked out when they find me grilling a steak and drinking a pint or two on the back patio at 7:30 a.m.

Now that I know it's practically health food ... Slainte~

[Rummyfan]

Guiness is better for you than other beers? Brilliant! I'll drink to that!

[Riley]

LOL ... I often do. I work the overnight shift and my wife and neighbors get pretty freaked out when they find me grilling a steak and drinking a pint or two on the back patio at 7:30 a.m.

In my younger days, leftover pizza and a cold beer was my breakfast on weekend mornings!

[Lady Jag]

Riley, my humor is usually lame. If that's why your suggestion sounds like a keeper, so let it be.

It's got potential . . . with a little more work.

[mylife]

[mylife]

Gosh that sounds good! I like a nice porter

[mylife]

If you want to order a Mexican beer without looking like a dweeb, order a Dos Equis or a Negra Modelo.

Negra Modelo or Bohemia.

I remember buying corona in mexico by the case when I was young. The next week we'd go back and turn in the bottles and get another case. I think with the deposit a case was around $1.65 there was a reason for this...corona is skank beer. LOL

[SquirrelKing]

Bill Clinton sez:

Guiness keeps the wiggle-tails swimmin'!

[TomB]

Beat ya both!
:-P

[The Great RJ]

The ancient Egyptians not only were avid beer drinkers but, thought the bowels were the source of both physical and spiritual pollution. They advocated purges for good health. Seems like this thinking is brought to perfection in Guiness.

[BreitbartSentMe]

My mom also has told us that the doctors in her day told her to drink one beer a day while she was pregnant/nursing. She also couldn't stand the stuff, so she didn't. Quite a difference from today's reccommendations, huh?

[dayton law dude]

Guinness is by far my most favorite beer. I order it so much that when my grad school buddies and I go on our regular Thursday night outings to the bar, the server always knows that Guinness is my drink.

Although I do like to "change it up" sometimes...once in a while, I'll have an Irish Car Bomb...half or 3/4 a glass of Guinness with a shot glass filled with whiskey (Jameson usually, but I prefer Crown Royal) dropped in.

[Oberon]

You drink Dominion products? Amen, brother...their Dominion Imperial Stout was and is my absolute all-time favorite beer. I understand it's hard to get these days, however.

[Cvengr]

I still prefer MacAndrew's Scotch Ale. Smooth cold or warm.

[ijcr]

A curse upon Columbus and coffee.

"At the end of the 17th century, the weekly allowance for pupils of all ages at one English school was two bottles a day. Beer was a good deal safer and more palatable than the available drinking water which was often drawn from polluted rivers."
"And beer was also common in the workplace. The American scientist and statesman, Benjamin Franklin, who lived in London from 1757-1774, recorded the daily beer consumption in a London printing house which he visited. The employees each had a pint before breakfast, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint at six o'clock and a pint when they finished work." from http://www.fosters.com.au/beer/history/history_of_beer.asp

[Ghengis]

I notice that Corona is the beer of choice for those who are unsophisticated about beer. I must say that it's marketed very well and cheaply priced so hence the appeal with the younger crowd who just don't know better.

I never drink beer which require that I stick wedges of lime in it to tolerate the beer's taste.

[moonhawk]

Proudly taglined since March 20.....

You?

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