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A WHOPPING 265,000 pints of Guinness are set to be knocked back by punters at the Cheltenham Festival this week, with St Patrick’s Day falling on Friday.
So drinkers at the horse racing extravaganza will be hoping that the old advertising slogan “Guinness is good for you” has some merit. It dates back to the 1920s, with pregnant women once urged to drink the black stuff to boost their iron levels, though this is no longer advised.
But now there’s growing scientific evidence that the popular tipple could contain health benefits after all. Here reveals how Guinness and some other surprising items of food and drink may have hidden plus points for our bodies.
It turns out a little bit of what you fancy may do you good after all… Quaffing Guinness: The brewery no longer makes specific health claims for the drink.
Yet boffins have found that drinking a pint a day, which contains just 198 calories, may work as well as aspirin to prevent heart attacks.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that the tipple could help prevent blood clots.
Drinking Guinness with meals seemed to have the best effect.
It’s reckoned that antioxidants in the stout, similar to those found in certain fruit and veg, slow down the deposit of cholesterol on the artery walls. Other research has linked the iron in Guinness with helping to stop you going deaf. A little lager: Not a fan of the famous Irish black stuff? Scientists have given comfort to lager lovers too. A study published last year by the Mediterranean Neurological Institute in Italy claimed that drinking moderate amounts of beer daily could reduce the risk of heart disease by 25%. An Israeli study found that a lager a day could reduce cholesterol levels. A cooked breakfast: Plenty of racegoers will be tucking into one of these this week and it might have more benefit than merely soaking up booze from the night before.
A study from the University of Alabama in the US found that having a fatty meal in the morning may boost metabolism for the rest of the day and help the body burn fat more efficiently.
A grilled breakfast with beans, tomato and juice even provides three of your five fruit and veg a day. That morning coffee: If you can’t do without your morning cuppa there’s even more reason to perk up thanks to research by Indiana University in the US. Researchers there concluded that the caffeine found in coffee boosts an enzyme in the body which helps protect the brain against dementia. It comes on the back of other studies that have shown coffee can ward off depression and even increase your metabolic rate so you burn more fat. Grabbing a pizza: That takeaway might not be as bad for you as you think. The tomato sauce used on pizza contains lycopene which has been shown to help fight cancer. The vitamin C it contains can also boost immunity. A 2004 study showed that pizza eaters may even be at lower risk of having a heart attack.
Pasta has got the thumbs up too – with research showing that those who ate the stuff regularly were less likely to be obese. Popping popcorn: Heading to the flicks this weekend?
Scoffing popcorn could come with a bonus.
A study at University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, found that a portion could contain more health-giving antioxidants called polyphenols than fruits and vegetables. Ditch the sugary stuff if you want to be kind to your waistline too. Researcher Joe Vinson said: “Popcorn may be the perfect snack food.” Peanut butter on toast: It’s one our daily indulgences and researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that eating peanut butter five times per week or more, significantly lowered the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Other studies suggest that the monounsaturated fats in peanut butter could lower the risk of having a heart attack and even help you lose weight by promoting fullness. Ice cream fix: You may not think of it as a health food and certainly not a staple of breakfast.
But a study by Japanese scientists at Tokyo’s Kyorin University has identified that eating the stuff immediately after waking up shocks the brain into an active state.
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