Study: Beer beats water for hydration

[Skybird]

Actually it is true that beer fights dehydration faster than water, because particle density in beer is "isotonic", and isotonic liquids can be assimiliated faster by the organism, than normal water. However, the effect is the greatest with what in German is called "Weißbier" and "Weizenbier".

For after sports, or long long bike-tours, I use a mix of beer and lemonade, 50-50. In German, it is a long-known drink, most popular in Southern Germany and Bavaria, where it is called "Radler". And there you already have it in the name: Radler translates (in a linear fashion) into "biker" (=> bicycle-rider).

An also isotonic alternative is alcohol-free beer, I have read just days ago. But not all taste acceptable.

[Bakkels]

No worries people, I'll take it upon myself to research this tonight. Anything for Subsim!

[Growler]

Originally Posted by Bakkels

No worries people, I'll take it upon myself to research this tonight. Anything for Subsim!

A noble thing you're doing, lad.

I remember in training, they always used to tell us to avoid the soft drinks because the carbonation dehydrated you. Didn't know if it was true, but I can tell you that I don't drink much pop anymore; mostly water, coffee, and beer.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Bakkels

No worries people, I'll take it upon myself to research this tonight. Anything for Subsim!

Good man

[DarkFish]

Originally Posted by Bakkels

No worries people, I'll take it upon myself to research this tonight. Anything for Subsim!

Wish I could join you, but seeing that my normal saturday night beer consumption leaves me still drunk sunday morning and I need to drive tomorrow, I'm afraid I can't

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Actually it is true that beer fights dehydration faster than water, because particle density in beer is "isotonic", and isotonic liquids can be assimiliated faster by the organism, than normal water. However, the effect is the greatest with what in German is called "Weißbier" and "Weizenbier".

For after sports, or long long bike-tours, I use a mix of beer and lemonade, 50-50. In German, it is a long-known drink, most popular in Southern Germany and Bavaria, where it is called "Radler". And there you already have it in the name: Radler translates (in a linear fashion) into "biker" (=> bicycle-rider).

An also isotonic alternative is alcohol-free beer, I have read just days ago. But not all taste acceptable.

While Beer and your Radler (sounds interesting, gotta be a weird flavor though), is isotonic, the alcohol is still a diuretic. It may be absorbed faster, but it get's excreted even faster.

A diuretic basically increases kidney function, increasing urine output. Side effects of diuretics are Dehydration and Hypotension.

So the fluid gets absorbed quicker, and you do feel better quicker, and part of that is from the alcohol have some sedative effects, but shortly after you are in a worse state when you start losing even more fluid.

Alcohol is one of the worst things to consume when your body is in crisis, as it masks a lot of the symptoms of the underlying cause.

If you truly wanted an isotonic solution, drink saline. .9% salt water.

Or you could drink Gatorade or another sports drink which has been designed to be isotonic and rehydrate and replenish nutrients as quick as possible.

[Skybird]

Gatorade and accoprding drinks I find to be some of the worst stuff you can drink, it always made me feel very bad, and "heavy". On Radler, consider that the ammount of alcohol in it is very small, and that there is also quite some ammount of sugar in that drink, and this when you physicall are running in "higher tunes".

I just can describe the effect 0.5 l of that brew, cooled, has on me when I am exhaustedly standing on top of the Teutoburger Wald hills, a geographical annoyance I meet after havinf done around 30 km on bike in hot weather. It is slightly (slightly!) relaxing (alcohol) and enpowering (sugar) at the same time, and helps to get me cooled qickly. It is definitely a revitalisation, and kills thirst very quickly. And now, it does not return after even shorter time.

Again, mind you, we do not talk about hard drinks and 0.5 l of beer, but just 0.25 of light beer.

Specially mixed sports drinks with added jkinerals and such, are most effective when being drunk is small quantities, but regularly, every 15-20 minutes two or three swallows. It is not the drink of choice when doing a major break during long sports activity, I say from private experience, it is better used dfuring the activity/tour, but frequently. To get refreshed and powered-up during a major break, Radler or a light beer is the superior choice.

I do a lot of biking here during the warm half of the year, and have tested lots of that stuff, and manually created "mixtures". I have come back to Radler, and an isotonic specialised sports drink that over here you only get in pharmacies, developed by the Sporthochschule Köln - it tastes terrible, but really works well when being consumed regularly during activity, in small quantities. It increases muscles' endurance. But Gatorade, Red Bull and such - forget it, it is nonsense. Some longer time ago I saw a docu on TV they examined it both in laboratory and with athletes in the real world. The finding was not really surprisingf for me: a normal coup of coffee vitlaises oyu more and battles tireness better than a can of Red Bull or even two, and the special effect of special sports drinkio like Gatorade and others you buy in the supermarket the doctors were not able to demonstrate. Coffee - or green or black tea! Cheaper, and superior.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

Or you could drink Gatorade or another sports drink which has been designed to be isotonic and rehydrate and replenish nutrients as quick as possible.

I always thought that Gatorade was good in small quantities but could not take the place of water. If you drink nothing but Gatorade after exercising you will be more dehydrated at the end.

When I was in sports we used to drink one cup of Gatorade and then many cups of water

But I freely confess this something we were told to do and I have not researched it myself.

[Gargamel]

AS with any fluid loss, you should be slowly consuming the replenishers. Your body can get rid of the water faster than it can the minerals, so when you chug a bottle of 'gatorade', your body will release what it thinks is excess water, but leave the minerals behind. Then it will realize it needs that water back. Unless you're bear grylls, you're not getting it back.

The Radler probably does make you feel better overall, but the alcohol still has diuretic properties too it, and will cause you dehydrate. BUT, as has been shown in other studies, alcohol does have a lot of healthy properties to it, when consumed in moderation. The natural materials in a brewed beer would have anti-oxidants, proteins, carbs, etc. All of which help restore your body after excersize.

So from a purely dehydration point of view, Alcohol is bad, water is best. But for recovery after strenuous excersize, I can see that Radler being a fairly good drink for making you feel better overall. It may lose a few points in the dehydration end, but clearly makes up for it in other areas.


To compare Gatorade and Red bull is like comparing Apples and Volvos. Gatorade is flavored water with some added minerals, in particular sodium and potassium, which are the catalysts that make your muscles work. Red Bull is some concoction that took everything that is supposed to be good for you and went way overboard on each. There's a reason (at least in the US) the FDA recommends only so much of a certain substance. IN certain scenarios you can go over it, like Vitamin C if you have a cold, 3-4x the RDA is ok. But when you start consuming 8,000-9,000x the RDA of a substance that has been shown to cause Hepatic failure in large quantities, it's usually a bad thing. Then you have people drinking multiple cans of that a day? Red Bull is nothing more than a well marketed liquid vitamin supplement. They taste like crap too.

[STEED]

What a load of bull.