How Does Drinking Beer Affect Cholesterol?

It’s Friday night: happy hour! One of your coworkers chose the cool new brewery that you’ve been wanting to try. But wait a minute … you have that doctor's appointment coming up to check your cholesterol levels. Is having some beer going to impact your cholesterol? 

This blog explains that yes, beer can impact your cholesterol. We’ve got the science of how drinking beer can affect your cholesterol levels and the dangers of drinking beer if you have high cholesterol. 

What Is Beer Made of? 

Beer is one of the most popular drinks world-wide. There are two main categories of beers, lagers and ales, differentiated by the fermentation process. No matter what kind of beer you’re drinking, it has four main ingredients: grains, hops, yeast, and water. 

• Grains/Malt. Grains that beer is made from include barley, wheat, rice, corn, oats, or rye. Barley and wheat undergo a malting process before the beer is made. The grains in beer establish the malt flavor and aroma, color, and the fermentable material of the beer.‍
• Hops. Hops, which comes from flowers on the Humulus Lupulus plant, gives beer the distinctive aroma and balances out the sweetness of the malt. Hops is responsible for the bitterness in beer, and the more hops, the more bitter the beer will taste. 
• Yeast. During the fermentation process, yeast consumes the sugars from the malted grain, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. For the most part, yeasts in beer making are neutral so the flavos are derived from the grains and hops. 
• Water. Beer is 95% water.

What Is Cholesterol? 

Cholesterol is a waxy substance in every cell of the body; it’s essential for normal bodily functioning. Cholesterol is a type of fat produced by the liver that is used to build cell membranes, produce hormones, and create vitamin D. Certain foods we eat also contain cholesterol, but our livers are capable of producing all the cholesterol we need. 

There are two types of cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL, the bad cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL, the good cholesterol). HDL carries the LDL from the arteries to the liver to be broken down. Our bodies need a balance between LDL and HDL cholesterol levels to function normally. Too much LDL cholesterol or not enough HDL disrupts the homeostasis and the LDL cholesterol will start to combine with triglycerides. Triglycerides are a form of fat we get from our food. When LDL cholesterol binds with triglycerides, hard deposits form in the inner wall of the arteries which could eventually lead to a blockage of the arteries.

High cholesterol results in fatty deposits in blood vessels that block blood flow in arteries which may cause heart attacks or strokes. Cholesterol levels are detected by a blood test. Lack of exercise, an unbalanced diet (eating too much saturated fats), stress, smoking, age, and some genetic components all contribute to cholesterol.  

How Does Alcohol Affect Cholesterol?

Alcohol’s effect on cholesterol varies depending on the amount and frequency of our consumption. Heavy alcohol use is considered having 15 or more drinks per week for men or 8 or more drinks a week for women. 

Light alcohol use increases the levels of HDL or the good cholesterol. Scientists found that light to moderate alcohol intake is associated with a reduction in risk for heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks. But correlation does not equal causation! There could well be other factors playing into this relationship. Additionally, the decrease in heart-related conditions was not specifically tied to reduced cholesterol in the participants.    

So light alcohol intake may not be terribly harmful for our cholesterol, but what happens when we are moderate to heavy drinkers? Heavy drinking increases LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. When LDL and triglycerides combine in our blood vessels, they can create bloggages. This is how heavy drinking increases our risk for having a stroke or heart attack.  

How Does Beer Affect Cholesterol? 

Alcohol can impact our cholesterol, but what about beer, specifically? Well — yes. Beer has multiple components that can affect our cholesterol levels. 

The malt, yeast, and hops in beer contain phytosterols, a compound from plants that binds to cholesterol to help the body eliminate it. That sounds promising — so can beer reduce our cholesterol levels? Unfortunately, no. Beer doesn’t effectively lower cholesterol levels because the phytosterols in it are at such low concentrations. 

There is one glimmer of hope for beer drinkers thinking about their cholesterol. A study in mice showed that moderate beer consumption cleared triglycerides from the liver and around the heart. Unfortunately, however, this study has yet to be replicated in humans. 

All in all, beer is not the magic bullet to lower our cholesterol. Beer contains alcohol and carbohydrates, both of which increase triglycerides. The excessive fatty proteins can increase build up in our blood vessels or raise our cholesterol levels. Additionally, beer’s empty calories can add up quickly. Drinking beer over time can lead to obesity, which is correlated with higher LDL and lower HDL cholesterol levels.  

Dangers of Drinking Alcohol With High Cholesterol

High cholesterol can be dangerous on its own, but pairing it with drinking can increase the associated risks. Drinking alcohol with high cholesterol makes those levels worse! Let's look at some of the risks of drinking alcohol with high cholesterol. 

• Drinking alcohol can further increase triglyceride levels and increase our chances of developing a stroke or heart attack. 
• Heavy drinking can elevate blood pressure. Having high blood pressure puts us at greater risk for heart disease. 
• Alcohol can damage the liver and may in turn impact cholesterol. Damage to the liver may reduce the liver’s ability to produce or clear cholesterol from the body. 
• Alcohol can have a lot of calories, so heavy drinking may add extra weight and further increase cholesterol levels. 

Tips for Drinking Beer With High Cholesterol

We may be tempted to drink if we have high cholesterol. Although it is not advised, let’s review some strategies for consuming alcohol when we have high cholesterol. 

• Drink in moderation. To avoid making our cholesterol levels worse from drinking, it is recommended to drink in moderation. Limit our drinking to one or less beer per day or not drinking every day can help us keep our cholesterol levels low. 
• Be mindful. To be a mindful drinker, we must be aware of our drinking habits and noticed them in a nonjudgemental way. Drinking mindfully allows us to recognized the amount we are drinking, create new habits around beer, and reduce our consumption of beer.   
• Balance. To reduce the chances of increasing our cholesterol to dangerous levels when we drink beer, we can participate in activities that might lower our cholesterol. Exercising like going for a walk or avoiding foods with trans or excessive trans fats can help reduce our cholesterol levels. 
• Try some non-alcoholic alternatives. Missing the taste of beer but don’t want to risk raising our cholesterol levels? Try non-alcoholic beer to satiate the craving for beer. 

Does Quitting Drinking Reduce Cholesterol? 

If you have high cholesterol, there is great news: you can lower it! In fact, the CDC lists cutting alcohol as one of the ways to decrease our cholesterol levels. The lower cholesterol levels from quitting drinking could come from weight loss, consuming fewer calories (especially fewer carbs), or regaining more liver function.