Brewing, Beer, Health, Wellbeing And Physical Fitness.

[Bretto77]

Hi all,

Im gonna start a controversial topic which not doubt all will have an opinion on, Brewing and maintaining good health and wellbeing



I love my brewing, love the culture of brewers, love the technical side and craft of creating a great craft beer. However I am concerned that my brewing is not necessarily good for my health and well being and lets be honest it probably makes me fat. I know many can make all sorts of nutritional claims about the value of beer ie anti-oxidants, Vitamin B etc. But lets face it brewing means that you are surrounded by large qualities of freely available and glorious beer!



I am guessing that the vast majority of people on this forum are content with the beer belly (I could be wrong) and if that is you then this post will probably mean nothing to you and its not my intent to upset you by telling you that you may need to change your lifestyle, diet and exercise. If you are offended by my topic then just ignore it and resist the temptation to abuse the shit out of me publically on the forum as I know this does happen on AHB. Unfortunately in Australia we live with an obesity epidemic for which I am a part of and wish to change that.



Anyway for those interested, I have recently read David Gillespies book Sweet Poison: Why sugar makes us fat



http://sweetpoison.com.au/



David is a Brisbane guy and has done significant research into what causes obesity and have found that the main culprit is fructose consumption in our diet found mostly in refined sugar. Lucky for me our lovely little creatures ferment fructose if any is in our wort to start with and remove it, so beer is fructose free. Unfortunately the alcohol and remaining carbs are very high in calories content probably not so good.



I have been fructose free for about 1 months and so far have slowly lost about 3kgs, (have reduced beer consumption but not stopped). I have pretty much cut out refined sugar from my diet, half of which contains fructose and it is working.



I noticed that someone posted a topic on yeast consumption in homebrew and farting. Im pretty sure the huge amounts of US-05 floating around my stomach, is probably primarily responsible for the retched farting that seems occur all too often. Would like to hear if others have similar experiences.



Anyway Im keen to hear from other like minded brewers that are concerned about this and I would love to hear what works for you so you have maintain both your brewing and your health.



Regards

Bretto77

Boonah, SE Qld

 

[mje1980]

Eat more salads and protein, don't eat much junk or refined foods, and do some excercise regularly. Pretty simple, its not a fad, not restrictive, though its not endorsed by any celebrity . Works well, the hardest thing is sticking to it!

 

[chadjaja]

Its not a pill, its not a shake, its not a new machine off morning TV.....

Surprise surprise its exercise and moderation!

I get in a good session on the rollers (bike trainer) whilst the mash is going and only need to hop off once to turn the HLT tank on with 15 mins to go. Gets me a good 1 hour of exercise in what is essentially dead brewing time. Just another way to fit in some cardio work. The bike is in the garage and I can see the timer, HLT heating up etc etc.

I'm thin because I move

 

[argon]

Its not a pill, its not a shake, its not a new machine off morning TV.....

Surprise surprise its exercise and moderation!

I get in a good session on the rollers (bike trainer) whilst the mash is going and only need to hop off once to turn the HLT tank on with 15 mins to go. Gets me a good 1 hour of exercise in what is essentially dead brewing time. Just another way to fit in some cardio work. The bike is in the garage and I can see the timer, HLT heating up etc etc.

I'm thin because I move

I like this idea and have considered it myself. I've got a decent exercise bike parked near the brewhouse and might give it a go next brewday. Only thing is I always find myself running around madly during a session trying to find stuff I've forgot or misplaced.

As for the op.... I'm currently having the same thoughts as you. I'm concerned with what the whole brewing thing may be doing to me and am considering how i may change my lifestyle to suit.

I move... But not regularly or intensively enough. I need to step it up, as I'm the heaviest I've ever been. I know my diet is ok, but could be better. One thing I've done recently is to removed all my pint glasses. Now I can only pour schooners or schmiddies. This has effectively cut down my consumption as I have to think about how much I'm consuming more often.

Good topic and something that's been on my mind for a while. I'm not an addictive person, but I've had family that have fallen to alcoholism and obesity... So keen to avoid that.

Moderation is certainly a difficult thing for mento find, but I hope to achieve it at some stage.

 

[d3vour3r]

Just dont make so much beer. what i do is while my beer is fermenting/bottled/aged i dont drink, then when its ready to drink i drink the lot over an occasion like camping or something. so thats 2 - 3 months of not drinking and doing alot of excercise and sticking to a diet, then having a awesome splurge drinking awesome beer!

mainly just keep up regular excercise and eat good food, then drinking shouldnt be a problem if its in moderation with the occasional bender every known again.

 

[Pollux]

I am in the same boat, I have stacked on a fair bit of weight since I started brewing, but that said I have also given up smoking in the same time frame and used to snack ALOT....

I recently purchased a kinect for my xbox (he who dies with the most toys wins right??) and simply doing a few rotations on one of the fitness games showed me how utterly unfit I am. At the moment I have gone back to parking 1km away from work and walking the last bit (also saves my $7 per day in parking fees) with the intention to get myself back towards the level of fitness I had when I could WALK to work (4.1km) in under 28minutes without feeling like I'm about to die at the end of it.

I'm quite certain that alot of the energy in my diet comes from beer as I don't tend to eat before midday (and I get up at 2:30am 5 days a week), only have a small lunch and often leave half my dinner on the plate. If I were to totally cut my beer intake I'd probably melt back to my old shape within 6 months, but that's just not something I am willing to do.