“Beer is evidence that nature wants us to be”
Thus writes George F. Will in yesterday’s Washington Post (thanks to Jeff Dutson for the tip). The article, “Survival of the Sudsiest,” is most definitely worth a read. In it Will asserts the role that beer has played in shaping our society. Fermenting Revolution also does a good job explaining beer’s social roots. Namely, beer. Will quotes Steven Johnson in a book which I now have to order,
The search for unpolluted drinking water is as old as civilization itself. As soon as there were mass human settlements, waterborne diseases like dysentery became a crucial population bottleneck. For much of human history, the solution to this chronic public-health issue was not purifying the water supply. The solution was to drink alcohol.
Makes sense. Beer was a way of hydrating without dying. Later, monks used it as “liquid bread,” because of its nutritional properties. But there’s more… To quote Will:
Johnson notes that historians interested in genetics believe that the roughly simultaneous emergence of urban living and the manufacturing of alcohol set the stage for a survival-of-the-fittest sorting-out among the people who abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and, literally and figuratively speaking, went to town.
To avoid dangerous water, people had to drink large quantities of, say, beer. But to digest that beer, individuals needed a genetic advantage that not everyone had — what Johnson describes as the body’s ability to respond to the intake of alcohol by increasing the production of particular enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases. This ability is controlled by certain genes on chromosome four in human DNA, genes not evenly distributed to everyone. Those who lacked this trait could not, as the saying goes, “hold their liquor.” So, many died early and childless, either of alcohol’s toxicity or from waterborne diseases.
Wow. Beer, genetics and awesomeness. It’s all connected.
Thanks for the heads up on this article, printing it out now as it’s going to be my beer reading for the train home tonight.
In light of todays announcement regarding Inbev/Bud I’m always fascinated to see beer (not just beer business) related articles out there in these medias…great stuff and very telling on the industries growth.
Cheers!
Brian