To Beer or Not to Beer…..

A picture doing the rounds of social media featuring Homer Simpson got me thinking and being excluded from the Simpsons Ireland fan group I was forced to do some leg work as to Homers meaning.

In my research I googled “To beer or not to beer” and surprisingly I didn’t get as many Simpson related anecdote’s as I had imagined. In fact I was presented with a peer reviewed research paper which I duly glanced over.

Jumping to the conclusion first, I like stories with a happy ending and only invest time in those, it would appear beer consumption could have a good affect on HDL serum levels – who knew? A further Google search has told me that HDL is High-density lipoprotein cholesterol. This is known as the “good” cholesterol because it helps remove other forms of cholesterol from your bloodstream. So in fact there is now scientific evidence to answer the question To Beer or not to Beer.

But wait there’s always a fly in the froth of good news. After telling me to continue drinking beer as it’s good for my heart they land the killer punch…clinical relevance ….unanswered!!

However, whether any of our findings has any clinical relevance is a question largely left unanswered

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7269243/

I’ve spent very little time researching the credibility of the statements in this article and feel somewhat crest fallen that the good news about my HDL may have no clinical relevance. As I drink a cold creamy pint I must contemplate this stark discovery…I think I’ll have a few more in contemplation but for the greater scientific good.

In conclusion whether you choose to beer or not, whether you believe beer increases HDL or not, the truth is very simple. The Simpsons fan page is to blame for it all just because they excluded me.