Now there's a headline! Before you crack open that Bud Light Lime (my personal favorite in the summer), I should tell you that the study showed that non-alcoholic beer had this effect, not the regular version. My opinion on non-alcholic beer is the same as decaf coffee or diet ice cream...what's the point?! But, turns out that it carries polyphenols that were proven to enhance the immune system of athletes after a marathon.
The days immediately following a marathon or other high-intensity endurance race are when an athlete's immune system is weakened. Runners, especially, are more suspect to upper-respiratory infections during this time. The experiment showed however, that those athletes that were given 6 glasses of weissbier per day (a non-alcoholic German wheat beer) had lower levels of inflammation in the immune system post-race.
Polyphenols are found in real beer too, as well as wine, so that's why you hear things now and then about one drink a day being good for your health. I suppose the study didn't test this because giving lab participants that amount of beer leading up to a race would do more harm than good!
Read more here:
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/health/article_212369870.shtml
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