Good news for beer lovers. Lager, in other words a bottom-fermented beer, would have beneficial effects on our intestinal health, reports Slate. This is in any case what reveals a study carried out by researchers from the New University of Lisbon published on Wednesday in theACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“An increase in the bacterial diversity of the intestine”
22 men participated in this study. For a month, they drank a 33 cl beer every day, without changing anything else in their eating habits. The scientists also collected blood and feces before and after the experiment. Thanks to this process, they were able to compare the samples and note “an increase in the bacterial diversity of the intestine”.
After four weeks, the researchers also saw an improvement in alkaline phosphatase levels, which are “a marker of gut health.” According to them, these beneficial effects could be linked to polyphenols, molecules with multiple virtues also present in many fruits and vegetables. Note: the improvement of the microbiota was observed with the use of alcoholic beers but also with non-alcoholic beers. Scientists therefore advise to prefer beverages without.