Good News, Bad News

My last few posts have dealt with depressing reality. It's time for something that's a little more uplifting. So today we'll be talking about beer.

Since the beginning of time,  it seems sipping on a frosty cold beer has been a necessity on a scorching hot day. This can be counter-intuitive at times, given alcohol actually increases dehydration...

However, researchers from Griffith University’s Health Institute may have answered every Australians prayers. They have found that by adding electrolytes, a common ingredient found in sports drinks, and reducing the alcohol content could make a beer more refreshing than ever.

As part of the study the Institute manipulated the electrolyte levels of two commercial beers, one that was regular strength and one that was light. They then gave those two beers to volunteers who had been heavily exercising just before consumption to test their fluid recovery.

Talk about a dilemma. Volunteer for a study that involves heavy exercise, but that also gives you free beer. What to do, what to do...?

The study showed that the light beer that had been combined with electrolytes was one third more effective at hydrating a person than a regular beer. The best news for beer drinkers was that the taste of the modified beverages didn’t change.

The good news is that the taste didn't change. The bad news is that we're talking about light beer, which doesn't have much taste to begin with.

Whilst of course the researchers don’t recommend drinking beer after rigorous exercise, Professor Desbrow suggests that it is more effective to tell people how to minimise dehydration than to tell them not to drink at all.

He said, “If you’re going to live in the real world, you can either spend your time telling people what they shouldn’t do, or you can work on ways of reducing the danger of some of these socialised activities.”

Give the good professor his props for recognizing how the real world works. But if it's all the same to him, I'll stick with Shiner...