The benefits of alcohol-free beer? There are loads… some of them are obvious. A few of them might come as a surprise. But all of them might make you re-think those less-than-healthy habits that we can all so easily fall into.
We think that going alcohol-free can offer a simple way to snap yourself out of unhealthy drinking choices (either permanently or partially), without restricting yourself from the tastes and experiences that you’ve grown to love. Here are five of the biggest benefits…
1. It’s full of vitamins, minerals and associated health benefits.
You may think a night drinking with friends or family could never be aiding your health, but with the switch to non-alcoholic beer, you’ll be enjoying one of the healthiest drinks behind the bar.
Non-alcoholic beer is surprisingly full of vitamins and minerals, including folic acid, potassium, iron and zinc. Researchers have found that non-alcoholic beer can help reduce your risk of heart disease and even reduce your risk of getting ill due to its strong antioxidant, antipathogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties.
2. It can help to improve your sleep quality.
One of the main ingredients in beer, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, is hops. Hops increase the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA, and when this increases, neural activity decreases, producing a sedative effect that helps the brain to relax, encouraging sleep.
When conducting an experiment on work-stressed nurses researchers discovered that drinking non-alcoholic beer in the evening helped improve their sleep quality, by helping them fall asleep faster and be less restless at night. In a similar study on university students during exam season, researchers found that non-alcoholic beer also helped them fall asleep faster.
3. It can help you cut down your alcohol intake.
Whether you’re wanting to cut down the units you consume in a week or trying to cut out alcohol altogether, non-alcoholic beer can help you consume fewer units of alcohol each week.
Research has found that non-alcoholic beer gives you the same feelings as if you were to drink the full alcohol version, as your brain associates the smell and taste of non-alcoholic beer with ordinary beer causing it to release dopamine, that lovely feel-good chemical.
So, if you’re the designated driver or just fancy a night off the booze, you can still enjoy the same great taste and happy hormone benefits of drinking a cold beer without the dreaded hangover or hangxiety the next morning.
4. It can help you feel involved and included.
Even though there are many different types of soft drinks and delicious drinks on the market, it can be easy to feel left out when everyone else is cracking open a frosty cold beer. Just because you don’t want to drink alcohol doesn’t mean you should feel left out. Ever. Non-alcoholic beer can make you feel more included and that you are enjoying the real deal like everyone else. It might sound silly, but it can be a big deal. Trust us.
5. You won’t get drunk.
Kind of obvious right? One of the main benefits of choosing a non-alcoholic beer is that it won’t get you drunk. Even though some alcohol-free beers contain 0.5% alcohol, that’s about the same amount as you’ll find in a ripe banana. So your body will process the alcohol almost as fast as you drink it.
The average pint of 5% beer contains about 3 units of alcohol and for the average person, their body will process around 1 unit per hour, meaning it will take three hours for their body to process one beer. Alcohol-free 0.5% beer contains around 0.28 units which on average takes the body 17 minutes to process.
