A recent study shows that hops are effective in reducing cholesterol and triglycerides. (Coincidentally enough, I take medication for high cholesterol and triglycerides. Hmmm…)

Anyway, the study was financed by the Spanish Beer Makers’ Association. Nuns were chosen because of their steady lifestyle and basic diet.

Fifty nuns drank half a liter of beer a day for 45 days, then stopped for six months. Then they took 400 milligrams of hops daily for 40 days.

The result was a six percent reduction in total cholesterol among those with high levels, the Centre said.

“We did it for the good of humanity,” Sister Almerinda Alvarez told the newspaper El Pais.

Good news, but the usual caveats apply. Taking up drinking beer, or increasing ones intake, is generally self-defeating. Even so, if you’re the type of person who eats a bag of pork rinds while watching the game, any health benefits you would receive from the beer would be counteracted.

I wonder if this will encourage anyone to become a nun to get free beer.

(via Bob Gob)