CALORIES, GLUTEN, AND CARBOHYDRATES IN BEER BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

How much calories, gluten, and carbohydrates are there in beer?

Calories in Beer
There is a perception that beer is very fattening. To address this, we need to talk about the primary function of food. Living cells combine food with oxygen to give carbon dioxide, water, and energy for life functions.

The overall chemical reaction is the same as burning the food in air, but under controlled conditions and at lower temperature. Extra food that is not needed for the cell’s energy requirement is converted to long-term energy storage compounds, including fat.

The energy potential in food is determined by burning the food and measuring the amount of heat released. Food energy is usually measured in Calories (1 Calorie = 1000 calories = 4184 joules = 4 BTU). Most people need roughly 2000 Calories a day depending on their size and level of activity.

The Food Energy Potential table tells us that the fattening aspect of beer is primarily from the foods that tend to go with it. Two beers, a half dozen wings, and a slice of pizza come to a shocking 1816 Calories. Two beers and a bunch of carrot and celery sticks would come to less than 400 Calories.

Gluten in Beer
Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in the seeds of certain grassy plants, particularly wheat, barley, and rye. The gluten proteins fall into two classes based on solubility: glutelins and prolamines. Wheat has a prolamine called gliadin, barley has hordein, and rye has secalin.

The nutritional issue with gluten is an immune disorder called celiac disease, which affects as much as 1% of the population. Persons with celiac disease react to certain portions of prolamine molecules with a cascade of molecular events leading to damage to the lining of the small intestine.

The condition is life threatening and is treated with a diet that excludes all gluten. In addition to persons with celiac disease, many others believe that there is a health benefit to excluding or limiting the intake of gluten. This leads to two questions. Is beer safe for persons with celiac disease? Is beer low enough in gluten to be suitable for persons seeking to limit their gluten intake?

Barley beer has been found to contain traces of hordein fragments of a type associated with celiac symptoms. There is no established safe level of gluten intake for persons with celiac disease. This gives a tentative answer to the first question: no, beer is not known to be safe for persons with celiac disease.

Gluten-free beer made without wheat, barley, or rye has been found to be free of traces of celiac-related protein fragments. As for the second question, the brewing process removes more than 99% of the gluten from the barley used to make the beer. Moderate consumption of beer could be regarded as consistent with a low-gluten diet.

Carbohydrates in Beer
Some low-carbohydrate diet books make the incorrect assumption that beer has a high concentration of maltose, a simple carbohydrate that these diets seek to avoid. In fact, the yeast consumes all the maltose and other simple sugars during fermentation.

The typical non-light 12 ounce (355 milliliter) beer contains about 12 grams (0.42 ounce) of carbohydrates, a light beer would contain about half of that. In either case, the carbohydrates would be complex, with only traces of simple sugars.