Beer is made from natural ingredients and has relatively low (or zero) alcohol content compared to most other alcoholic beverages. Drinking beer in moderation can have a positive effect on life expectancy, due to the alcohol in it. There is a J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality, with the lowest relative risk (with an approximate 10% decrease) associated with the consumption of around 20 g of alcohol per day for men and 10 g of alcohol per day for women. This effect is the sum of the positive effects on cardiovascular disease risk at moderate intake and the negative effects on certain cancers and accidents with higher consumption. It is unrelated to the type of alcoholic beverage.
Moderate alcohol consumption should always be considered as a supplement to, and not as an alternative to, other healthy lifestyle choices that lower the risk of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other diseases.
People who do drink beer or other alcoholic beverages are encouraged to drink in moderation as part of a healthy diet. For people who don’t want to consume alcohol, non-alcoholic beer can be a good alternative.
