Drink Dark Beer, It's Good for You

At least if you need iron: Dark beer has more iron than pale beer

A team of researchers from the University of Valladolid (Spain) has analysed 40 brands of beer, discovering that dark beer has more free iron than pale and non-alcoholic beers. Iron is essential to the human diet, but also helps oxidise the organic compounds that give these beverages stability and flavour.

According to the analysis carried out by the University of Valladolid (UVa) on 40 types of beers from all 5 continents, dark beers have an average free iron content of 121 ppb (parts per billion) compared to 92 ppb in pale beers and 63 ppb in non-alcoholic beers.

"Although these quantities are very small, the differences are apparent and could be due to the production processes or raw materials used in manufacturing," stated Carlos Blanco, professor of Food Technology at UVa and co-author of the study.

The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, indicates that higher iron content in dark beer could be explained by the malt and hop extracts used to produce it.

Actually, this advice is better for women than for men; most often it's women that are anemic due to iron deficiency.  Men tend to excess iron if anything.  But I'm not likely to find a picture of a good looking guy bringing a dark beer to a woman.  Nor am I likely to go looking.  Sorry girls.