Phytoestrogens in beer - good news or bad news?
This year Dr Stuart Milligan (Kings College London) and Professor Denis de Keukeleire (University of Ghent) published a paper on the presence of a new, very potent phytoestrogen in hops (Milligan et al 1999). This phytoestrogen was identified as 8-prenylnaringenin with a biological activity greater than most other established phytoestrogens. The potential health benefits that might be associated with phytoestrogens in beer are discussed.
Technically, phytoestrogens can be described as "plant-derived oestrogenic compounds". Like the "Help" windows on the computer, this definition suffers from being accurate but possibly not very useful when trying to understand what phytoestrogens actually "do" in the body. This compares with about 1 mg per day in the UK (Humfrey, 1998).
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