Have a beer and call me in the morning

One interesting discovery is that the ingestion of beer in some groups could explain some of the low caries rates and low observed skeletal infection. I have examined with F. Leek (1986) predynastic and dynastic Egyptian tooth surfaces with a blunt character that we have associated with the chewing of papyrus masticatories and bread. The "bread-beer meal" plus a few onions and some dried fish was the standard diet of the common people along the Nile at the time. In Egypt, beer was regarded as food and none other than the god of the dead, Osiris, was hailed as the guardian of beer. In 2005, research showed that Nubians, in what is now Sudan, also used beer as antibiotic. In bones found in North Africa, anthropologists discovered traces of the antibiotic tetracycline. According to the National Geographic, Nubian beer was "made from grain contaminated with the bacteria streptomycedes, which produces tetracycline". The drinkers were probably not aware of the benefits of their beverage. The researcher "believes the tetracycline protected the Nubians from bone infections, as all the bones he examined are infection free." Recent research at King's College and St Thomas' Hospitals in London has shown that beer could limit the risk of osteoporosis.