After work, your colleague invites you for a bottle of beer. Your idea of beer is that it's an unhealthy beverage; it also leaves you a beer belly. Normally, you would choose to drink wine because of the "One glass of wine a day" PR that bombards us everywhere. It's time that we know that beer has also its amazing health benefits when taken moderately.

The health benefits of beer include anticancer properties, a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, increased bone density, the prevention of dementia and coronary disease, aid to the digestive system, and anti-aging properties, as well as treating diabetes, gallstones, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and hypertension. Beer could safeguard your heart, boost your immunity, protect your bones, and more. Ready, set, drink up. Italian researchers found that moderate beer drinkers had a 42 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to non-drinkers. For maximum protection, keep your consumption to one pint-at around 5 percent alcohol by volume-a day, the researchers emphasize.

What Researchers Say About Beer That Can Make You Continue Drinking:

• Dutch researchers analyzed 38,000 male health professionals and found that when men who weren't big boozers began drinking moderately over 4 years, they were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
• Finland researchers found that each bottle of beer a man drinks daily lowers his risk of developing kidney stones by 40 percent.
• Researchers asked students to exercise until their body temperature reached 104 degrees, and then had them rehydrate with beer or water. You recover faster when you rehydrate with beer!
• British researchers found the more drinks people consumed, the more attractive they found themselves. There, it makes you more self-confident since alcohol lets go of your inhibitions.

But You Have to Drink Beer the Right, Healthy Way

 According to the scientists, drinking beer is beneficial to health if the consumer sticks to the following guidelines. As beer drinker, you're expected to:

• Drink in moderation, i.e. one to three units a day in conjunction with a healthy meal. Men are allowed up to three units.
• Maintain a consistent intake, spreading the consumption over the entire week.
• Not be young
• Adhere to the current guidelines which dictate a maximum of 14 units a week for women and 21 units a week for men
• Avoid drinking more than five units in a short space of time, for instance in a single night.

Cheers!