Is beer healthy?
No. Beer is alcohol with some carbs, and the alcohol carries the same costs as wine or spirits: cancer risk, higher blood pressure and a broken second half of the night. A 12 oz regular beer has about 153 calories with almost no protein or fiber, and beer is the drink most strongly tied to gout.
Beer gets a pass because it feels mild. It’s lower in alcohol than wine, it comes in a can, and people call it “liquid bread.” But a 12 oz beer at 5% has the same 14 g of alcohol as a glass of wine or a shot, and the pint glass and craft strength push many beers to two drinks.
What we’d do
If you drink beer, count it by the can and the strength: a 16 oz IPA at 7% is almost two drinks. Switch to light beer or, better, a non-alcoholic one for the second and third. If you’ve had gout, beer is the drink to cut first.
The pros
- It’s lower in alcohol per ounce than wine or spirits, so a 12 oz light beer at 4.2% is under one standard drink.
- It’s social and easy to swap. A non-alcoholic beer keeps the taste and the cold glass. Is non-alcoholic beer healthy?
The cons
- It’s alcohol. NCI lists seven cancers alcohol causes or raises, and beer counts the same as any other drink.
- Empty calories. USDA lists a 12 oz regular beer at 146 calories with 1 g of protein, 13 g of carbs and under 1 g of fiber, and NIAAA’s calculator says 153. About two thirds comes from the alcohol, which the body burns first while fat burning waits. 200 calories of beer vs food
- Gout. In 47,150 men followed for 12 years, each daily beer raised the risk of gout by about half, more than spirits did. Wine didn’t raise it in that study.
- Bigger than it looks. A 16 oz pint is 1.3 drinks, a 16 oz IPA almost 2, and a 12 oz craft beer at 10% is 2. Is a pint of beer one drink?
Light beer is a real improvement on calories: NIAAA lists it at 103 for 12 oz. It’s still alcohol, so it carries the same risks per gram.
1 US drinks
Beer, 12 oz, 5%: 14 g of alcohol and about 98 calories from the alcohol alone.
When will tonight's drinks clear?
Bed at 11:00pm
Mostly cleared by 2:50am
That's about 3.8 hours of your sleep with alcohol in your blood (3.1 to 4.9 if your liver runs faster or slower).
Restaurant pour6 oz, 13.5%, 1.35 US drinks- Restaurant pour6 oz, 13.5%, 1.35 US drinks
REM: More REM lost. Your evening is 0.56 g of alcohol per kg of body weight.
The full clock, with the band, the same drinks two hours earlier and what your heart does.
6 sources
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Rethinking Drinking, Alcohol Calorie Calculatorrethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov
- US Department of Agriculture, Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, 2002ars.usda.gov
- Choi HK, Atkinson K, Karlson EW, Willett W, Curhan G, Alcohol intake and risk of incident gout in men: a prospective study, Lancet, 2004pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Siler SQ, Neese RA, Hellerstein MK, De novo lipogenesis, lipid kinetics, and whole-body lipid balances in humans after acute alcohol consumption, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1999pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- National Cancer Institute, Alcohol and Cancer Risk, reviewed May 2, 2025cancer.gov
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, What Is A Standard Drink? Updated December 2025niaaa.nih.gov
