Rehydrating beer, the beer that really quenches your thirst?

By 3. September 2013Blog, Taste

Imagine the scene, you have just finished a hard day’s work, in the garden, labouring or redecorating the house. You know you should probably drink something sensible to rehydrate you but then you see that nice ice cold beer sitting in the fridge…

Well, thanks to scientists from Griffith University, Australia, that beer could soon be filled with electrolytes to help rehydrate you as well as quenching your thirst.

The scientists added sodium to low alcohol beer and to normal strength beer and volunteers were given either of these or normal beer following strenuous exercise. Their levels of urine and their body mass were measured hourly for the next four hours to see how well the different liquids hydrated them.

They conclude that the low alcohol beer with the added sodium was significantly better at rehydrating than the normal beer with and without added sodium. They suggest this could be a compromise between needed to rehydrate and drinking a drink with high social acceptance (perhaps in the pub after work?). Personally, I think I prefer the Bavarian solution. They also stress that they are not suggesting that drinking alcohol after strenuous exercise is a good idea.

Nevertheless, an interesting idea, check out the abstract on the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism webpage.