The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems
Interesting bit of research. From the Seattle
Post Intelligencer:
Scientists figure out what makes beer good for you
Our understanding of how hops becomes the molecules that give beer its flavor and the shape those molecules take has been wrong for 40 years, say scientists from the University of Washington.
Using a century-old technique, they've nailed down the precise structure of those molecules for the first time, overturning the long-standing assumptions. And, while beer brewers the world over are unlikely to change their recipes, the scientists hope to use the discovery to create new medicines.
"Now that we have the right results, what happens to the bitter hops in the beer-brewing process makes a lot more sense," Werner Kaminsky, a UW research associate professor of chemistry, said in a press release.
And, because beer and its bittering acids � in moderation (the school emphasizes) � have beneficial effects on diabetes, some forms of cancer, inflammation and perhaps even weight loss, knowing exactly what they become in beer means they can be used to make new pharmaceuticals.
Very cool. The paper was published in
Angewandte Chemie International Edition. One of the more major chemical journals...
Title of this post is from that great sage and philosopher H. Simpson (#1
here)
Posted by DaveH at January 30, 2013 12:51 PM