Take a moment to think about it: what do you think about having a beer after a race, a game or a workout ? Well, not? Comforting, nice, the best beer of the week, right? And healthy? Beneficial even? Think again.

It has become a kind of common intuition, the idea that tandem exercise and beer is healthy for the one who practices it. And it has become that because that message has been launched from different collectives ( mainly beer manufacturers and commercials ) based on marketing rather than science.

The Ministry gets into a garden

The problem is aggravated when not only the beer industry promotes this message (since they have interests in the matter, consumers should take their statements with caution), but when it involves public agencies. This happened this weekend, and the responsible was the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA), nothing less.

Nothing to object to here, except that the idea of ​​beer was everywhere , included in the photos, where the minister was seen drinking one after the race. There it is again, the association exercise + beer = healthy life. Well, I’m sorry, but science disagrees.

Beer does not hydrate and alcohol is always harmful

What she says about it will not please beer brewers so much: beer is neither healthy nor isotonic. There are studies that affirm that beer with alcohol does not have moisturizing properties to recover liquids after an exercise with strong sweating, but on the contrary, it favors dehydration and does not comply with theconditions to be considered an isotonic drink.

In addition, alcohol is an addictive and toxic substance to the human body in any amount and frequency . Although the idea that a glass of wine a day is good for the heart is common, as with beer, there is more marketing than science. The benefits, if any, of consuming a small amount of alcohol at specific times do not compensate for the damage it causes to our cells and organs.

The case of beer without alcohol

And beer without alcohol ? The thing here changes a little because there is no alcohol (in the case of 0.0), there is no harm that causes it. It is therefore a drink with a high percentage of water, sugars and minerals. Within what fits, it is better option than a beer with alcohol .

However, it is not ideal either . On the one hand, it is not an isotonic drink, its composition is not the same and its benefits are not either. In fact, a few months ago a well-known beer brand received a tug on the ears of the Spanish Society of Sports Medicine and the General Council of Official Medical Colleges for marketing an “isotonic 0.0 beer”.

According to these institutions, this drink did not meet the criteria and guarantees necessary to be recommended neither for sports nor for physical activity.

Sport as a beer ambassador

But in addition, the fact of calling this drink beer was another cause for concern for both agencies, which pointed to it as a way to introduce young sports fans in the consumption of beer and therefore, alcohol . Even more so when his promotion was associated with the image of famous athletes. Pay and Marc Gasol and Mireia Belmonte were some of those athletes who lent their image to this drink.

And here we enter a tricky terrain, between the legal and the ethical. Until 2012, no brand of alcoholic beverage could be advertised in places where its consumption was prohibited, which included the football states and many other sports venues. This left the brewing industry out of many places where they could find an audience for their products.

Non-alcoholic beverages were their entry into these spaces, so few brands were left without launching theirs and practically all tried to associate these products to sport and healthy living. In 2012 the law changed and alcoholic beverages of less than 20 degrees can now be advertised in places where they can not be consumed.

The reason for this modification was that, in the absence of this prohibition in other countries, sports events that were produced abroad and that were broadcast on television also showed advertising of alcoholic beverages, which was considered a competitive disadvantage.

So now we can see brands of beer sponsoring athletes, teams or events without that surprises us too much , and strengthening in our head that relationship between beer and sport as something healthy. A relationship that we should not have internalized.

No, beer and sport is not a healthy combination

Because let’s make things clear: drinking alcohol is not healthy, nor good, at any time, quantity or frequency. Does this mean that you should stop drinking alcohol, including those beers with the colleagues who make you so happy? Certainly it would be the best for your body, but the decision is entirely yours and there each with his life.

But what we do consider important is that you do it knowing the risks to which you expose yourself and without a trace of deception in your mind when thinking that a beer after a race or a match is in some way healthy and healthy, because it does not is. No matter how hard the companies that market beer or the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, are involved.