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You'd be hard-pressed to find a credible doctor to recommend drinking beer every day as a way to stay healthy, but that could soon become legitimate medical advice.
That's because a team of scientists in Singapore just developed a probiotic beer that may not only help to keep your gut healthy but also improve your overall immunity.
Well cheers to that.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore recently announced that they've created a new beer infused with probiotics or the sort of "good" bacteria that's been shown to promote digestion and various other bodily functions.
There's been a huge increase in interest in probiotics lately with more and more people consuming things like fermented vegetables, yogurts, and kombucha, all of which contain naturally occurring strains of probiotics, so bringing a beer to the figurative table makes sense.
The idea for this probiotic brew was first proposed by a student in the University's Food Science and Technology program, who worked alongside school faculty for about nine months to perfect the recipe: a sour beer that contains roughly 3.5% alcohol.
It was a unique challenge since beers contain hop acids which prevent the growth and survival of probiotics (and is part of the reason there aren't currently any probiotic beers on the market). To allow for live probiotics to survive in the final product, they had to modify the conventional brewing and fermentation process.
Specifically, it contains a probiotic strain known as "lactobacillus paracasei L26," which apart from having a sexy name that just rolls off the tongue, has been shown to neutralize toxins and viruses, as well as regulate the immune system.
While the team filed a patent to protect their recipe, there's no word on if or when the beer will make it to market. However, considering the drumbeat of studies indicating the health benefits of probiotics -- from digestion to depression -- and the subsequent demand for food and drink that contain them, they'd be wise to cash in ASAP.
