For Recovery From Endurance Events; Nonalcoholic Beer

First, guess in which country the research was done that found beer to be the near-perfect beverage for recovery from endurance events. If you guessed Germany, open a cold one. Tara Parker-Pope reports in the Well column that researchers at the Technical University of Munich recruited 270 volunteers, male runners who were training for the Munich Marathon, to drink two to three pints of beer, albeit non-alcoholic beer, every day starting three weeks before the race and ending two weeks after the race. Sadly, only half of the recruits were given beer, and half were given a beer-like placebo. As reported in  Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the men drinking the nonalcoholic beer reported far fewer illnesses than the runners swallowing the placebo beverage, and the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections was 3.25-fold lower in the nonalcoholic beer drinkers. Parker-Pope tells us that the beer drinkers also showed significantly less evidence of inflammation, as measured by various markers in their blood, and lower counts of white blood cells than the placebo group, an indication of overall better immune system health. What's that about? The researchers hypothesize that it involves the beverage’s abundant polyphenols, which can suppress virus action. Which begs the question: shouldn't alcoholic beer do the same thing? The answer, researchers say, is Yes indeed, but the deleterious effect of alcohol could wipe out any benefit. The good news: more research is needed.

Read more in Well.