Beer Strengthens the Bones
Scientists came to the surprising conclusion that beer helps strengthen bones. They established that beer contains a great amount of silicon which is the key factor for increasing the mineral density of the bones. Researchers from the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California studied the commercial production of beer to find out interrelations between the way of production and the silicon content.
Charles Bamforth, lead researcher, said that the brewing factors that have some effect on the silicon level in beer had not been studied properly before. Scientists compared the silicon content of a large number of beer brands. They also studied raw materials and the brewing process to understand their influence on the silicon quantity in brewing syrup and beer.
Barley peel and hop are the richest sources of the element. Though most of the silicon gets left behind in the peel, still a great deal of it remains in the brewing syrup and finds its way into beer during the brewing process. Researchers established the fact that the malt richest in silicon is light-colored and it underwent less thermal conditioning during the brewing process. Dark-colored products such as roast barley and black malt, which underwent more thermal treatment show a much lower silicon content. The reason for that is not known so far.
Beer contains digestible silicon which provides 50 % bioavailability. That’s why beer is one of the principal reasons of silicon intake in western diets. According to the statistics of the National Institute of Health dietary digestible silicon can be very important for the growth and development of the bones and the connective tissue. Beer is one of the basic sources of silicon. Therefore some researches show that beer drinking in moderate quantity can help fight against the skeletal system diseases characterized by loss of bone tissue mass and deterioration of bone tissue structure.
You can learn more about this research in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture endorsed by the Society of Chemical Industry.
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After materials in Medical News Today.
