Without Beer There Would Not Have Been Civilization

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To avoid dangerous water, people in the middle ages had to drink large quantities of beer. But to digest that beer, which has alcohol a poison, individuals needed a genetic advantage that not everyone had at the time. This genetic advantage is the body's ability to respond to the intake of alcohol by increasing the production of particular enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases. This ability is controlled by certain genes on chromosome four in human DNA, genes not evenly distributed to everyone. Those who lacked this trait could not, as the saying is, "hold their l!quor." So, many died early and childless, either of alcohol's toxicity or from waterborne diseases. The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors, by those genetically disposed to drinking beer. Most of the world's population today is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol. "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy", Benjamin Franklin.