Nuns show beer can lower cholesterol

For all those people who attended Catholic schools and remember getting their knuckles rapped by nuns, here's something nuns did that may please you.

A study funded by the Spanish Beer Makers' Association showed a group of 50 normally non-drinking Cistercian nuns had their cholesterol levels reduced by an average of 6% when they drank a regular half-liter of beer for 45 days.

Would nuns lie?

Apparently, the hops are the catalyst for the cholesterol loss, and beer need not contain alcohol or be consumed in large quantities to be effective, according to something called the Centre for Information on Beer and Health which conducted the study.

The Spanish nuns drank a half-liter of beer a day for 45 days, then stopped for six months. Then they took 400 milligrams of hops daily for 40 days. The cholesterol reduction was the same both ways. Which probably came as good news for at least one participant.

"To be honest, if I needed it to reduce cholesterol or whatever I'd continue to drink it, but I wouldn't just drink beer (for itself) because I don't like it," Sister Maria Jose told Spanish state television RTVE.

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