John Barleycorn Rules!

[sollers]

At the bottom of a column in last Sunday's "Observer":

"Drinking beer could help prevent weak bones"

".. Beer is a rich source of dietary silicon, which can help cut the chance of developing diseases such as osteoporosis...

But it has to be made with malted barley.

This is the news I have been waiting for.

Many years ago, Dr Theya Molleson, my tutor in "Human Skeletal Remains in Archaeology", did a study of the skeletons from the crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields. One of the interesting things that she discovered was that the women did not suffer from osteoporosis.

In youth women's bones from the 18th century were less robust than modern women's, and like them density decreased over time, but there was no catastrophic nosedive around the time of menopause and 18th century women in their 60s, 70s and 80s had bones that were more robust than modern women in their 50s.

We were at a loss to explain this. I suggested, half joking, that the change in pattern (during the early decades of the 19th century) might relate to women no longer drinking small beer for breakfast.

It looks now as if this might be right!

Comments

[pine]

Hmmm, beer for breakfast would probably turn my existing occasional unproductive-day problem into a sure thing. Still. A beer in the evening would be much the same (for bones, not for productivity).

I will share the happy news with fellow fans of beer, and/or paleopathology. :D

[phoebe_zeitgeist]

. . . but I thought beer had to be made from malted barley. And that if it wasn't, it didn't count as beer, but rather was by its nature some other possibly-unmentionable substance with alcohol in it.

At any rate, I think I should pass this on to the orthopedic surgeons of my acquaintance immediately. It would be so nice if occasionally one could see a doctor and be given the kind of advice one actually wanted to follow.

[sollers]

Wheat beer is also beer, but was specifically mentioned in the original article as not having the beneficial effect.

(Very confusingly, the Old English word "beor" seems mostly to have been used for cider, which is absolutely useless. It also lacks the nutrients to be found in grain beers, so alcoholics who mostly subsist on cider tend to suffer from beriberi. Proper beer is so nutritious that the main problem one gets from over-consumption - the notorious beer belly - comes from eating as well as drinking beer, thus consuming too many calories. It's low on protein and fibre, of course, but lots of vitamins and trace minerals are there)