Newsletter 6

ISSUE 6

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APRIL 2015

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

PRODUCED BY THE BBPA

THE 7TH BEER & HEALTH SYMPOSIUM:

I’LL TELL YOU WHAT I WANT...

BY AMANDA URSELL

Pg: 2NEWS BEER

LOW ALCOHOL BEER: IN NUMBERS

Pg: 3

Pg: 4

MORE CONSUMER AWARENESS NEEDED ON LOWER-STRENGTH OPTIONS * OF ADULTS BELIEVE THAT IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HAVE A RANGE OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS LABELLED AS ‘LOWER STRENGTH’

† OF CONSUMERS WERE NOT AWARE THAT THERE ARE LOWER STRENGTH CHOICES

‡ WOULD CONSIDER SWITCHING TO LOWER-STRENGTH PRODUCTS AS A WAY OF MODERATING THEIR DRINKING RATHER THAN TOTAL ABSTINENCE

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, JANE ELLISON MP CONGRATULATED the drinks industry in March on the success of the ‘Billion Unit Reduction Pledge’ as part of the Government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal. So far, the industry has removed 1.3 billion units of alcohol from the UK market as part of their commitment.

A range of innovative products are now available, including a selection of lower-strength alcohol beers, such as Guinness Mid-Strength, Fosters Radler and Adnams Sole Star, together with examples of non-alcoholic beers, such as Becks Blue, Cobra 0% and San Miguel 0%.

Whilst non-alcoholic and lower-strength beer is slowly but surely making its way as a viable option in a number of shops, bars and restaurants, nevertheless, a recent national opinion poll conducted on behalf of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) illustrated that there is lots still to be done on educating and raising awareness of lower-strength options amongst the general public.

“Whilst there is still a job to be done in making consumers aware of the lower-strength beers

*†‡

ComRes surveyed 2044 GB adults online (3-4 December 2014)

now available, the trends are positive,” comments BBPA Chief Executive Brigid Simmonds.

“In the past couple of years, we have seen huge innovation from British brewers in bringing new, lower-strength products to market and giving consumers greater choice.”

Since 2011 the beer market has seen the launch of many new, lower-strength products between 2.0 percent ABV and 2.8 per cent ABV across all levels of production. Whilst all these beers will be based on the same, common natural ingredients used for standard strength beers, there are also opportunities to experiment with new ingredients and in particular fruits, such as lemons or limes.

However it’s not all good news, under current advertising rules, brewers cannot promote lowerstrength drinks, as such products are not ‘legally

defined’ and producers are restricted from advertising approaches which make a virtue of ‘strength’. The British Beer & Pub Association is urging the Government to help change this, in particular through changes in the food labelling regulations to introduce definitions for lower strength products, in addition to those for low or alcohol free drinks at or below 1.2 per cent ABV. “There is now a great range of lower-strength beers brewed from 1 to 3.5 per cent ABV with a fabulous range of flavours – just think how much the industry could do, if we could advertise or promote these drinks as ‘lower-strength’.” concludes Brigid.

So, if you’re considering one of the lowerstrength or alcohol free options this summer - why not give one of them a try, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

ISSUE 6

|

APRIL 2015

THE 7TH BEER & HEALTH

SYMPOSIUM

alcoholic beer, on athletes. There was a particular focus on inflammation and upper respiratory tract infections.

‘BEER AND CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH: EFFECTS ON MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY’: Dr Simona Costanzo, Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS Mediterranean Neurological Institute, Pozzilli, Italy Scientific evidence of the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption only began to surface in the last part of the 20th century. Since the proposal of a ‘French paradox’ in the early Nineties, the

AT THE 7TH EUROPEAN Beer & Health Symposium in Brussels, scientists presented some of the latest research on the potential positive effects on health of moderate beer consumption, supporting the notion that moderate consumption by healthy adults can be fully compatible with a balanced lifestyle.

The programme for the event was divided into three key areas; ‘Beer: What’s in it?’, ‘Beer’s Place in the Diet’ and ‘Moderate Consumption of beer and your health’.

The first session ‘Beer: What’s in it?’ focused on beer’s ingredients, in particular, touching on the potential for gluten-free beer and the research being undertaken to assess the potential of certain ingredients as a means to improving the benefits of beer.

The second session ‘Beer’s Place in the Diet’ looked at beer’s place in a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet - often associated with decreased rates of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.The session also revealed, when comparing calorie counts for different foods and drinks, that there is no scientific basis for beer causing abdominal obesity or the so-called ‘beer belly’ when enjoyed in moderation.

The final session ‘Moderate consumption of beer and your health’ presented a number of scientific

studies that looked in more detail at the current scientific consensus on beer’s protective effect for heart and respiratory tract health including the effects of specific components in beer, such as polyphenols.

possibility that consuming alcohol might confer protection against coronary artery disease (CVD) was extensively investigated; the question whether wine was a better protecting beverage than beer or spirits was addressed by a large meta-analysis, published in 2011 by Dr Simona Costanzo.

The Symposium heard that there was evidence for a J-shaped association between wine or beer (but not spirits) consumption and vascular risk. Doseresponse curves from comparable studies appeared substantially similar for wine and beer: one out of

‘THE LOW ALCOHOL STORY’:

three people drinking an average daily amount of 25

Professor Johanes Scherr, Department of Prevention & Sports Medicine, Rechts der Isar Hospital,Technical University of Munich, Germany

be maximally protected from the risk of suffering a

It is well known that strenuous and prolonged exercise significantly increases the incidence of upper respiratory tract illness (URTI), which is known as the so called “open window” in athletes.

This is caused by transient immune dysfunction.

Naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds present in foods such as vegetables, fruits, wine or also non-alcoholic beer (NAB) have strong antioxidant, anti-pathogenic and anti-inflammatory properties. In his research and lecture Professor Johanes Scherr, looked at the health-protective effects of polyphenols, especially those found in non-

grams of alcohol, as either wine or beer, appeared to fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular event. The findings indicated that the effects of wine and beer do not differ significantly and reiterate the hypotheses that: •

ethanol plays a major cardio-protective role regardless of the polyphenolic content of various beverages

•

besides

the

ethanol

effect, non-alcoholic

components may have an additional role, but they are present both in beer and wine •

they may confer a new beneficial effect of drinking wine or beer in moderation in terms of cardiovascular risk and mortality reduction not only amongst the general population but also in patients suffering from CVD.

thenaturalchoice

I’LL TELL YOU WHAT I WANT...

BY AMANDA URSELL I’m not sure exactly when it happened. When the typical glass of wine you’d see a Bond girl elegantly sipping in the ‘70’s transmuted into the enormous ‘bowl’ from which Bridget Jones and the Spice Girls generation imbibed.

But expand it did from a typical 125ml glass into a 250ml monster and alongside it’s expansion in volume came a creeping increase in its alcohol content.

It wasn’t until writing a nutrition feature about Alcohol and Christmas a few years back that the penny dropped. It was this combination of factors that had led to a generation of women waking up with raging hangovers the morning after having what had been intended to be a quick drink with a few friends maybe after work, after the gym or after the kids were finally in bed.

It certainly wasn’t after a Big Night Out. The problem was this; where women thought they’d had ‘just a few of glasses’ (and for this read ‘just a couple of units’), they would in fact quite easily, with two, 250ml glasses, have downed 500ml of wine. Yes, nearly a bottle had slipped down without realising.

Ouch, no wonder women were reaching, somewhat bewildered for the Nurofen in the morning.

It was at this point that I think we started to become a bit fussier, a little more enquiring, a bit of a nuisance really, when ordering a glass of wine in a bar or pub, or skewing our necks round at the bottle in a restaurant for its ABV as it was being poured.

But I wasn’t alone in becoming a bit more discerning. It was at about this time that a few of the young fashion girls on the newspaper I write for began to talk about how they felt they were safer sticking with a bottle of beer rather than ‘risking wine’, because as they explained with their post-Olympics, health-conscious heads on, they really wanted to know where they stood on the ‘units’ front.

The prospect of making a similar swap didn’t come easily. I like wine. I like the glasses. I like the way it looks and tastes when you drink it.

BUT I TOO LIKE TO KNOW WHERE I AM WITH MY UNITS AND CALORIES AND THE FACT IS, AS THE FASHIONISTAS INFORMED ME, HALF A PINT OF 3 – 5 PER CENT ABV LAGER NOT ONLY MAKES A LONG, COOL, REFRESHING DRINK, IT IS ALSO AROUND ONE UNIT...AND ONLY 100 CALORIES TO BOOT.

And when this happened to be 500ml of a little red number at 14 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV), that totted up to 7.2 units.

But I too like to know where I am with my units and calories and the fact is, as the fashionistas informed me, half a pint of 3 – 4 per cent ABV

lager not only makes a long, cool, refreshing drink, it is also around one unit... and only 100 calories to boot.

“A couple of those on a day and you are still within the recommended drinking guidelines for women” I was reliably informed.

So it seems I’d learnt a thing of two from the youngsters. Firstly, contrary to my previous, uneducated assumption, not all ‘young’ people are drinking like fishes and burning the candle at both ends and the middle too.

Like me and others in my generation, they want to enjoy themselves but not find themselves either dancing on the tables, or sliding under them come home time.

Keeping tabs on your units is becoming cool; so three cheers for the burgeoning development of great tasting, good looking, lower

alcohol beers hitting the fridges in pubs and clubs.

Dare I say it appears that we can now talk about ‘staying healthy’ and ‘alcohol’ in the same breath. Drinking sensibly seems to be something many of us want and when consumers start voting with their purses and wallets, product development will no doubt continue to flourish.

So if you asked me what I want, what I really, really want, it would be two things. Firstly to be able to sip again from a Bond style 125ml glass, preferably containing something bubbly at around 9 per cent ABV. But failing that… an elegant, girly, bottle of 2 per cent ABV beer.

Something feminine, something fun and something that doesn’t make me look like one of the boys. They’ve got their own brands. I’d like one too please…

ISSUE 6

|

APRIL 2015

thenaturalchoice

LOW ALCOHOL BEER: IN NUMBERS

For more information, spokespeople and photography contact the press office for the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) at Trinity PR on 077 0948 7960, email jo.gulliver@trinitypr.co.uk or visit www.beergenie.co.uk.