Listen up all you beer lovers, because I have some great news; it is now a proven fact that beer can provide the same health benefits as a glass of wine a day. No matter what type of beer you enjoy, studies have shown that drinking beer in moderation (up to 2 drinks a day) can and will lower your chances of strokes, as well as heart and vascular disease. The logic behind this is known as the French Paradox -- the link between the low rate of heart disease among the French and their often high fat diets is a daily dosage of red wine with meals. Well, there's no denying the results of that study. But what the public doesn't know is that the health benefits of beer has been known, documented and applied for centuries. But there are folks out there (those evil wine connoisseurs) who don't want you to know about it. According to Mr. Jim Anderson, wine expert and tasting specialist, "When you compare the raw ingredients that go into wine and beer, you'll find that wine, on one hand, is made purely from grapes, water and yeast. Grapes are a fine source of sugars, fiber and chromium, but few of those things survive the fermentation and filtering process. Yeast has loads of complex B vitamins, but again, they do not appear in the final product due to filtering." So many of the beneficial nutrients thhat so many people think exist in wine are often filtered out of the final product they actually end up drinking. Beer, on the other hand, is made from grains, water and yeast. Grains commonly used are barley and wheat. Cheaper, mass-produced beers rely on corn and rice, which are cheaper food products and result in less taste. However, both kinds are loaded with a variety of vitamins that actually survive the fermentation and filtering process and remain as nutrients absorbed by the body. And the vitamin value of the yeast is conserved in the hundreds of unfiltered beers that are on the market -- both on tap and in bottles. A study done in November of 1999 by The New England Journal of Medicine stated that light to moderate beer drinkers would decrease their chances of suffering a stroke by 20%. That's a significant number right there, fellas. They also stated that those who drank one beer a day compared to those who drink one beer a week experience no difference in reducing stroke risks. So crack open a cold one after a hard day's work; you and your body deserve it!