If your New Year’s Resolution was to make healthier changes in your life, you don’t have to cut beer out. There are plenty of stories about people dropping lots of weight by cutting beer out of their diet, which is probably a big factor, but beer does have lots of positive benefits. Like all good things, moderation is paramount.
Beer has many health benefits though. Much like wine, there is something to the calming and relaxing benefits of alcohol in small amounts. A beer or a glass of wine at the end of a stressful day is found to be beneficial to stress and anxiety levels. For high cardio workouts, a beer at the end is great for recovery. The carbohydrate and protein levels in beer make it an ideal workout recovery. Your body craves these energy sources to help with muscle building, and the hydration benefits of beer are well known.
It’s hard to argue against the high carbohydrate levels in beer, so if you’re choosing a keto/low carb diet for the new year, beer is going to be hard to factor in, but there are still lots of solid options. Many lagers are low in alcohol and sugar, and often have very few calories/carbohydrates per serving. Many dark beers are rich in protein and are a nice way to juice those protein macros a little bit while still keeping your carbs down. In addition to tasting great, foreign export stouts and other dark English ales are so full of protein, they’re recommended to nursing mothers looking for a drink.
At the end of the day, the healthiest decision is to cut out alcohol all together. But that’s no fun. So you want to find that balance. Cravings are too real, and moderation is good for all things. So make the choice to drink beer, and exercise.