In a recent article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists looked at the effect of alcohol and non-alcoholic beer ingestion on the gut microbiota.
Study: Impact of beer and non-alcohol consumption on the intestinal microbiota: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. Image credit: MsMaria / Shutterstock
Fund
The fermented extract of malted barley grains, beer, is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. Epidemiological studies have shown that drinking low or moderate amounts of beer reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. These protective benefits of beer are equivalent to those shown with moderate wine consumption.
However, the link between alcohol intake and cancer denies the benefits of alcoholic beverages over diabetes and ischemic heart disease. Therefore, despite numerous preclinical and molecular studies demonstrating the health benefits of fermented alcoholic beverages, it is critical to explore and evaluate the impacts of de-alcoholic and alcoholic beer.
In addition, like other phenolic substances, the polyphenols in beer can enter the gut, where they could regulate bacterial growth. Live fermentation microbes may also be present in some beers.
The Flemish Gut Flora project showed that beer consumption significantly affects the overall composition of the microbiota. Given the role of the gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes, regulation of the gut microbiota could be another pathway that regulates the health impacts of beer.
About the study
The current research was motivated by the absence of randomized clinical trials examining the effects of moderate and non-alcoholic beer intake on intermediate measures of cardiovascular risk and intestinal microbiota. The aim of the present pilot study was to evaluate how beer, with and without alcohol, affected the makeup of the intestinal microbiota and cardiometabolic markers among healthy men.
In the current double-blind, randomized, parallel two-arm study, researchers recruited 22 healthy men to consume 330 ml, or a bottle, of non-alcoholic alcohol, or 0.0% v / v. , beer or alcoholic, i.e. 5.2% v. / v, beer daily for a four-week follow-up period. Blood and fecal samples were obtained before and after the intervention period. In addition, 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (16S rRNA) gene sequencing was used to examine the intestinal microbiota.
Healthy subjects from the Lisbon metropolitan region were recruited through advertising on social media. Applicants were asked to visit NOVA Medical School for a physical examination and a quick questionnaire about their medical history to assess their eligibility to participate in the research.
Inclusion criteria included healthy men, moderate alcoholics, those between 18 and 65 years of age, without chronic diseases with substantial gastrointestinal consequences and able and willing to give informed written consent. People with documented cardiovascular disease, diabetes or other relevant metabolic disorders, infectious diseases, antibiotic use in the previous four weeks or laxative use in the last two weeks, and those with a history of alcohol, drug use were excluded. or other substances. .
Results
The authors found that drinking non-alcoholic or non-alcoholic beer every day for four weeks did not increase body mass or weight. They also found that it did not drastically alter serum cardiometabolic indicators. However, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer appeared to improve the function of fecal alkaline phosphatase (ALP), a measure of intestinal barrier action. In addition, they improved the variety of the intestinal microbiome that has been linked to beneficial effects on health.
Phenolic compounds in beer, such as phenolic acids and flavonoids, may contribute to the increase in bacterial heterogeneity observed in the intestinal microbiota of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beer drinkers. These findings were consistent with other recent research suggesting that drinking non-alcoholic beer for 30 days increases intestinal α microbial diversity.
The team noted that certain substances, such as yeast, polyphenols, and yeast components, can be removed during brewing, especially during beer filtration. As a result, beers with a higher yeast and polyphenol content may have a stronger influence on the gut flora than Lager beers used in this research.
The results also showed that serum ALP levels drop after four weeks of daily beer consumption, regardless of the alcohol concentration of the beer. Because serum ALP activity was frequently used to assess bone, liver, or heart damage as ALP function increased, observations of serum ALP activity may have no clinical value. .
Conclusions
Taken together, the results of the study revealed that drinking alcoholic or non-alcoholic beer increases intestinal bacterial variety without affecting body fat mass, body weight or serum cardiometabolic indicators, making these drinks a promising way to increase the diversity of the microbiota. In fact, current results imply that the effects of beer on the regulation of the intestinal microbiome were self-contained in alcohol and could be facilitated by the polyphenols found in beer.
Several studies show that drinking alcohol reduces bacterial diversity. Alcohol use, on the other hand, increased intestinal bacterial diversity in the current study. As a result, the polyphenols in beer appear to have outweighed the negative impact of alcohol on the intestinal flora.
In addition, the scientists claimed that the causative factor in the decrease in serum ALP activity and whether it is related to the improvement of bone, heart or liver function requires further research. In addition, the impacts of beer on intestinal microbiota modification and ALP function imply a health benefit that should be investigated in a cohort with metabolic disorders.
Magazine reference:
- Cláudia Marques, Liliana Dinis, Inês Barreiros Mota, Juliana Morais, Shámila Ismael, José B. Pereira-Leal, Joana Cardoso, Pedro Ribeiro, Helena Beato, Mafalda Resende, Christophe Espírito Santo, Ana Paula Cortez, André Rosário, Diogo Pestana, Diana Teixeira, Ana Faria and Conceição Calhau; Impact of beer and non-alcohol consumption on the intestinal microbiota: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021 / acs.jafc.2c00587,