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Minerals and Trace Elements

There are roughly 1,500 parts per million (ppm) of some 30 minerals and trace elements combined in beer. This is the equivalent of 1,500 milligrams per liter or per 0.264 gallons (about one quart). Such nutritive loading alone makes beer an exceptionally healthy beverage.
Of these elements, about one-third (about 550 ppm) is potassium. One liter of beer, therefore, supplies the average adult body with 27% of the minimum daily requirement of potassium.
Beer also contains 96 ppm of magnesium, which means that one liter of beer covers 29% of the adult minimum daily requirement of this mineral. Magnesium has a positive effect on cardiac activities and aids in the prevention of heart attacks. This effect is enhanced if the daily diet is also low in calcium. Happily, German beer contains what nutritionists consider only a small amount of calcium, about 35 ppm. This favorable ratio between magnesium and calcium also helps to prevent gall and kidney stones.

German beer has 319 ppm of phosphorus, the equivalent of 23% of a person’s daily minimum requirement in one liter.

Food should not be judged merely by the beneficial elements it contains, however. It should be judged also by the potentially noxious elements it does not contain. In this context, it is important to know that German beer is a low-sodium drink with only 44 ppm of sodium. This makes it an ideal dietary component in a low-sodium diet for people with high blood pressure, edema, or kidney disease.

Vitamins
Beer, like bread, is made from grain. During the malting process grain starts to germinate. This process makes the grain’s vitamins and other elements more accessible to the body and thus enhances its nutritional value. Nutritionists have identified 14 different vitamin compounds in beer — including vitamins A, D, E, and, most importantly, B — for a combined vitamin total of 210 ppm.

In the B-group, the following vitamins are the most important (they are listed with their quantities per liter of beer in parentheses followed by the percentages of adult minimum daily requirements met by the consumption one liter of beer per day):

-Thiamine B1 (0.028 grams/liter) = 2% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Riboflavin B2 (0.33 grams/liter) = 20% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Niacin (7.73 grams/liter) = 46% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Pyridoxine B6 (0.61 grams/liter) = 36% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Folic acid (89 micrograms/liter) = 38% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Pantothenic acid (1.5 grams/liter) = 24% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Biotin (12 micrograms/liter) = 18% of adult minimum daily requirement
-Cobalamin B12 (0.82 microgram/liter) = 27% of adult minimum daily requirement

B-vitamins are essential for almost all digestive processes. Several of them enhance vision and the formation of blood cells, and they expand the blood vessels in the brain, which supply oxygen and nutrients. Niacin also influences the functioning of the heart, the central nervous system, and the immune system. Folic acid reduces the amount of homocysteine, a low-density lipoprotein or “bad cholesterol” (LDL), in the blood stream. Elevated levels of this protein are considered a major risk factor in cardiovascular disease. Several B-vitamins are also responsible for healthy skin and beautiful hair.

Dietary Fiber
It may come as a surprise to most people that the average sparklingly brilliant German beer contains about 1,500 ppm of dietary fiber, the same quantity as the combined amount of minerals and trace elements. Depending on the particular beer style, the amount of fiber may range from 500 to 6,000 ppm. Dietary fiber is made from indigestible carbohydrates. In beer, it comes mostly from malt. It enhances the performance and regularity of the intestines and thus reduces the risk of colon cancer and other intestinal diseases. The total amount of fiber in beer may be relatively small, yet beer is one of the few alcoholic beverages that contain any fiber at all.

Proteins
On an absolute basis, beer is also low in protein — only about 5 ppm — principally because brewers prefer to work with low-protein malt varieties. High-protein malt could impede a brew’s extract efficiency and have a negative effect on head formation. The proteins that do exist in beer, however, are mostly valuable amino acids that are essential for human health. Beer is, therefore, an excellent addition to any low-protein diet.

Citric and Lactic Acids
One liter beer contains on average some 600 ppm of citric and lactic acids. These acids stimulate the secretion of saliva, strengthen the heart, and promote the growth of the intestinal flora.

Hops
Hops both improve flavor and serve as a natural preservative ... and beer is the only alcoholic beverage that contains hops. Hops also function — and this is, admittedly, a gross simplification — as a mild sedative and appetite enhancer, which makes a hop-pronounced beer, such as the bitter Pils, an ideal aperitif.

Carbohydrates
Nutritionists have documented more the 40 varieties of easily digestible carbohydrates in beer. There are about 28 ppm of them, supplying the body with readily available energy. The brain, nerves, and muscles all use carbohydrates as their favorite fuel. The main carbohydrates in beer are malt sugars, which are converted barley and wheat starches that are produced during the malting and mashing process.

Carbon Dioxide
There are about 5.1 ppm of carbon dioxide in German Helles or Pils. Carbon dioxide stimulates blood circulation in the mucous membrane in the mouth and thus the secretion of saliva. It also stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach lining, but without causing acid heartburn. Finally, it speeds up the passage of food through the stomach and the excretion of waste substances by the renal system.

Carbon dioxide, like hops, makes beer eminently suited as an aperitif. Weissbiers, especially, are great appetite enhancers because of their fizzy effervescence.

Nitrates
The nitrate content of Helles or Pils is around 22 ppm. This value is below the nitrate threshold for drinking water of 50 ppm set by the European Union. This means that, at least with respect to nitrates, German beer is superior to tap water in most regions of the world.

Polyphenols
There are an average of about 150 ppm of phenolic substances in beer. About two-thirds of these come from malt, and the rest come from hops. Polyphenols are vegetable-derived antioxidants that carry out a large number of health-promoting functions. There is plenty of on-going research into the role of polyphenols.

Hops contain xanthohumol and isoxanthohumol. These are polyphenols that have been shown to possess cancer-fighting properties, at least in the lab. They are thus being seriously investigated for their anti-carcinogenic effects.  Flavonoids also stimulate the so-called fibrinolytic system, which mitigates against blood clots and thus reduces the risk of heart attacks. Lastly, flavonoids have also been credited with being anti-inflammatory agents.

The bittering substance lupolon in hops has been shown to retard the growth of  the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is by far the most common cause of peptic ulcer, a sore or hole in the lining of the stomach or duodenum (the first part of the small intestine).
Polyphenoles in beer — just as in red wine, but less so in white wine — function as antioxidants. They prevent low-density lipoproteins (“bad” LDL-cholesterols) in the blood stream from oxidizing. In the long run, this reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Purine
Beer is very low in purines. These are elements formed of nucleic acids that are found such genetic materials as DNA. When ingested with food, however, purines are reduced to ureic acid and excreted by the kidneys. Any malfunction in the purine reduction process can lead to the accumulation of ureic acid in the blood stream, which, in turn, can cause deposits of uric acid crystals in the joints — a painful affliction known as gout.