Move over Dasani, Sam Adams is better for you...

From Paul Mulshine's News Blog:

"Beer is a poor choice for rehydrating after exercise or competition," read a typical article. "Its diuretic effect sends athletes running for the bathroom."

No, it doesn't. Why do doctors repeat those claims?

"Doctors are people, too," said Carroll. "Some of these things are things you were told when you were young. We heard it before, and we just keep perpetuating the same story."

Recently a Spanish researcher, Manuel Garzon of Granada University, decided to test this popular wisdom. Garzon had students do a strenuous workout in hot weather. Afterward, one group drank beer and the other drank water. The beer drinkers actually managed to get a bit more water into their systems than the control group, Garzon discovered. In other words, you can't dehydrate yourself while drinking a liquid that is 90 percent water.

I could have predicted that without doing the study. I've been going to bars since 1969, and I have never yet seen anyone keel over from dehydration. It could happen though, so in the spirit of science I will continue my research.

So, as long as you don't break the seal too often, you'll be nice and hydrated. This makes good sense. Beer's popularity comes from the early days of city life when the water was unclean. By filtering and fermenting, you have a liquid that is cleaner than the drinking water, which all too often intermingled with the sewage, or "night soil," or "shit" in the common parlance.
Liquid is liquid; you might as well drink water to avoid the perils of beer belly. But there's no reason to fill Evian's coffers or waste tons of fuel and resources to import water from fucking Fiji of all places. Use a Brita filter if you must. According to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund, not the wrestlers) 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year, which uses 17 million barrels of oil. Neighborhood Network has an interesting article about the real costs of every bottle of water you drink.

Now of course beer bottles have a similar environmental impact, but we don't have beer faucets in our houses, do we?