Effects of the intake of craft or industrial beer on serum homocysteine.

Beer is a source of folate, vitamin B6 and B12, molecules involved in the pathways of homocysteine\r\n(HCY), a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This research evaluated if a consumption of\r\ncraft or industrial beer could reduce serum HCY. In a randomised cross-over study, 12 men\r\n(28.7 ± 6.0 years) and 12 women (29.4 ± 7.5 years), healthy, omnivorous, with normal body mass\r\nindex, non-smoking and not taking oral supplements or contraceptives, followed a free-living\r\ndiet and received, daily, for 3weeks, 330 ml of industrial (4.5% of alcohol) or craft beer (9% of\r\nalcohol). Anthropometric measures and blood samples were taken at the beginning and at the\r\nend of each period. The consumption of industrial beer reduced (p<0.05) HCY (7.35 vs.\r\n6.50 mmol/L) and increased folic acid (3.46 vs. 3.94 ng/mL). Craft beer increased gamma-gluamyl\r\ntranspeptidase (GGT) (16.6 vs. 18.6U/L) and reduced vitamin B6 (20.9 vs. 16.9 ng/mL).