The important part here is "in moderation", while a lot of stuff in beer is probably good for your gut health, alcohol is detrimental
I think the really important part is: alcohol free beer.
The article itself doesn't state it really, but the linked meta-study does in fact mostly reference non-alcoholic beer. Also two of the five authors work for the largest Chinese brewery:
State Key Laboratory of Biological Fermentation Engineering of Beer, Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd., Qingdao, China
So while the actual meta-study might be ok (I haven't thoroughly checked for this), the article is lying by omission at least. The comments on it mention further issues, however these don't seem to touch the core, but rather the historical aspects of beer.
Thanks for your input on this. Didn’t checked the linked study
No amount of alcohol is good for you.
Good opportunity to link the WHO's information regarding alcohol consumption they posted this year at https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health:
currently available evidence cannot indicate the existence of a threshold at which the carcinogenic effects of alcohol “switch on” and start to manifest in the human body
Even though I agree with all the points the WHO makes (I myself haven't drank in over a year), I'm 100% certain that alcohol consumption is also a result of drug policy for a lot of people because it's the only legal way of inebriation for the population and total sobriety is nothing most people want. For a large portion of the populace, alcohol is the only actual option, and as long as policy makers don't acknowledge this fact, not much will change about alcohol consumption. Safer (and from my point of view better, but opinion might vary) alternatives exist, but due to their legal status, there's both a health and a legal risk.
As long as drug policy follows a doctrine that is unsubstantiated by scientific evidence, curbing the alcohol consumption by a significant amount will remain unsuccessful.
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